


GHOSTBUSTERS: AVALON

by purplecookie1313



Category: The Real Ghostbusters
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:28:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 45,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23959210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplecookie1313/pseuds/purplecookie1313
Summary: The guys get transported across the multiverse to a world where Humans don't exist and have to deal with the aftermath of their kidnapping with their supernatural counterparts where it changes the life of one of them forever.The Ghostbusters of the magical dimension were content in their success until the appearance of human Ghostbusters turns their world upside down...
Comments: 16
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Real Ghostbusters nor do I make any profit from them, This story is made for the fans by a fan. The Avalone Ghostbusters are mine, cannot be used without permission. Just an FIY, they guys are from 1989, so think about what was going on during that time, trying to be a little authentic. WRITTEN FOR A MATURE AUDIENCE 18+. Please enjoy.

GHOSTBUSTERS: AVALON

By purplecookie1313

Chapter 1

It was a bright and warm blue summer day in the City of New York, the brightly colored buildings and green streets displayed their musical hues as the red hover sports car flew over the many inhuman habitats of this world. A red sporty hover car glided though the traffic lined up for miles overhead the city. The female driver swerved lazily thought the hovering traffic with the roof down on the convertible, it was a busy day it seemed for a Saturday and she was not a happy vampire to begin with.

Dr. Petra Venkman pulled her car to a slower speed and began to descend into the main traffic and below further to the buildings below, she landed on the roof of the Ghostbuster's headquarters where other senior staff parked. The building was ten stories high and took over almost half of the block including the service yard, it's black onyx bricks repelled the heat of the day making the building much cooler in the summer. On all side of the building was one giant 'no ghost' sign painted, the magical paint allowed the sunlight to pierce through the windows as if the paint was never there. Cheep and easy advertising.

She turned off her car and hopped out, her high heeled boots clicking on the hard stone as she stepped onto the teleportation pad located far from the parking area. She ran her hand through her spiked brown hair and glided her finger over the row of rainbow studs in her ear, she really needed that hair appointment today. She hated getting called back in on her days off.

She shook off the drive's dirt from her red leather jacket, she wiped some off her jeans before the pad took her directly to the garage and where the rest of the group was waiting for her.

There were three black vans waiting inside the garage, each side had the same 'no ghost' sign, on the other side of the building was the offices where she and a couple of other senior associates had their offices, not to mention their secretary, a Tangergran elf named Jasper Melnitz. 

He was at his desk grabbing some papers and clip boards, his short red hair was spiked up today, Petra noticed that he was wearing a new sea-foam green sweater, she laughed to herself as the sight of the young fool attempting to attract his long time crush. He wasn't a bad looking guy, very nice under the snarls, unfortunately for him he lost his heart to the Ice Queen the first day they hired him so many years ago. Standing beside his desk was two of the four founding owners of this paranormal enterprise.

Both ladies were dressed in the standard black one piece uniforms with their patches and named tag, including the double reinforced standard dark gray boots. Both turned to their long time friend and business partner with curious looks.

Petra squinted her glowing red eyes at them, “So Spengs got you two all suited up did she?” She laughed, “And on our day off, nasty bitch isn't she? Just kidding, still love her... she makes us money...”

“She said it was an emergency and required the attention of all senior staff...” Replied Dr. Rayshida Stantz. She was from the Felina species, a humanoid race of cats. Her black striped orange hair and round fuzzy ears gave her a look of a tigress. Her long fluffy tail matched her hair and usually floated about.

Wanjay Zeddemore, the other Felina, had skin of purest black with red markings noticeable on her face, she kept her red hair buzzed almost off. She was the largest of the four, she was an avid gym-rat and loved the way her sculptured form looked, her sleek long tail would constantly twitch as she spoke, “So we decided to just get ready instead of being told to like SOME people...”

“Well, whatever has her scales raked doesn't matter to me. It's MY day off! I need to get ready for my hot date tonight and I was just at the manicurist's when she called me...”

“My apologies Petra, but you'll need to cancel your date tonight...” All three heard the monotone like voice coming from the teleportation pad.

Dr Enzapettorallinatiiralleyah 'Enza' of House Spengler was walking towards them holding her clear crystal tablet and her usual stone cold gaze. She was the 2nd tallest of the four, her long silvery white hair was always tied up in a tight bun. She wore a pair of golden glasses with no side frames that just sat almost at the tip of her small nose leaving her blue reptilian eyes free. She was slender in looks, but with being a dragon she could change her form at will. Dressed as usual in her uniform and white lab coat, she carried herself with an aura of authority. 

“I'm not canceling my plans with Tapper Condelle...” Petra declared, “You can take these two yahoos with you but I'm keeping my night off.”

Enza turned her gaze to the other two, “Who is she talking about? I thought she was dating that songstress?”

“That huge Persian griffin movie star, he stared in some blockbusters like Danger Zone and Don't find me Dead...” Replied Ray, “The girl you're thinking of was that pop princess Cassida...”

“She was just getting way too clinging for my tastes.” Petra said proudly. 

“Ah.” Enza turned back to Petra, “Apologies, but you will have to cancel your date. Your attendance to this assistance is vital to the contractual obligations we had negotiated with the City...”

Petra turned to Wanjay, “What did she say? I still haven't learned to speak Spenglish yet...”

Wanjay groaned, “She said you have no choice.” She answered, “For God's sake's, we're been friends since our first day of college over fifty years ago, you've known her longer than that. You should be used to how she talks by now Petra.”

“Yeah but it's sooooo hard...”

Enza snapped her fingers causing a small thunder to sound and getting the attention from all three, “As I was trying to explain, several weeks ago I had sent you all a memo to your pads that we would be participation in a raid conducted by the NYPD on a business called Deg's Pet Emporium, actually the proprietor's warehouse that is....

“Wait!” Petra put up her hand, “How much are we getting paid for this?”

“Standard contractual fees...” Enza replied.

“So we don't get over time?” 

Enza sighed, “Yes Petra, we will still be paid for the over time from the city..”

“Great, let's hear the plan then...” She smiled at her long time best friend.

Enza gave her a perturbed gaze, “Yes, of course. The NYPD had just informed me that...”

“Wait!” Petra help up her hand again, “Why are we assisting with a pet shop bust? We're Ghostbusters! We deal in ghosts, ghouls, things that go bump in the night and junk like that. Not pets. This sounds like a good job for Animal Control...”

“Unless it was a pet demon...” Ray chimed in.

“Actually, inter-dimensional creatures ARE our jurisdiction, I'm afraid...” Enza voiced.

All three turned to her, “What?” they all asked.

“Yes, it seems that the NYPD are now dealing with dimensional smugglers. Last month in Kopenhanger, one of our local teams were called in because their police had raided a warehouse that held almost one hundred smuggled inter-dimensional creatures captive. I've contacted our representative there Ferbus Conker about the situation, six of those creatures recovered were humans. It seems that the Asmerdians from the southern continent of Bashemiel pay an extremely high price for humans...”

“HUMANS!” Petra shouted in her shock, the few employees that were busy working around the garage cleaning gear and filling up the vehicles all stopped at looked at her, “Go back to work! I ain't paying you slugs to stare at me...” She looked back at Enza, “Humans? Oh God, what do they want with them? You know what? DON'T tell me. I don't want to know.”

“Those poor creatures...” Ray said in a sad whisper, “I feel bad for them being torn away from their family and friends and brought to a strange place by evil people...”

“No fears Rayshida, all our International Stations will be working with their local law enforcement to apprehend the guilty parties. As I was trying to say, I'm having Conker ship all the humans they acquire as well as the the other facilities to our headquarters here.” 

“What's the big deal about the humans? It's not like that there's lots that come here. I mean, in the last thousand years, how many humans have actually come to this world? Two? Three? They're pretty weak and squishy, you know? They don't last long here...” Mentioned Wanjay.

“There has been seven recorded cases as of date, not including the current nine in our custody nor the ones unknown.” Enza touched her tablet, the clear glass like rectangular plate the of a sheet of paper lit up and began to display blue writing on the surface, “Humans are potentially dangerous in our world, they have the ability to learn our techno-wizardry easily and use it for their own dark purposes. Most tend to be corrupted creatures. There has been some instances where one had accumulated an undead army and marched it to Lenzberga in the late nineteen hundreds, but nothing confirmed. Also they're not native to this world and are considered an invasive species that won't be tolerated. However, the issue with this is that there is a possibility that there are already human slaves currently held captive in Asmerdia, and since they fetch a high price as a slave, I concur that they could be creating a breeding facility there and they can multiply quickly. The UN has declared this an urgent matter...”

Petra slammed both hand on the top of her head, “The UN is now involved? What the Hell Spengler? What's next? The Army? The Navy?”

“If you would just let me finish...”

“Hold up, one more thing, who's going to pay for all these humans we're going to collect? I mean, it's going to take you and your team a good while to figure out what dimensions they all belong to. And let's not forget that if the police are involved then we're going to have to hold them up until court's over and we all know how long that takes. So who's flipping the bill for that?” Petra crossed her arms.

Enza sighed, “City still pays for it. If you would just stop interrupting me, I can finish explained the order...”

“OK...” Petra sat in Jasper chair and crossed her feet on top of his desk, “OK, you have my undivided attention Spengs, I won't say a word...”

“That would be a miracle!” They heard Jasper shout as he was filing some papers, “And get your dirty feet off my desk!”

Petra barked at him, “I don't pay you to be a smart mouth...”

“Consider that my bonus since you don't pay me what I'm worth!” He growled back.

“Please don't get him going, I don't want to hear him complain about you in my lab for hours again...”

“I bet you just enjoy that special alone time with him...” Petra gave Enza a sly grin and a wink.

The dragon in elven form gave the vampire a very serious look, “We do not encourage that behavior around here, is that understood?”

“I understand.”

“Good. Now...” Enza looked down at her pad, “We will be in teams of two, Stantz and Zeddemore will take car five and Venkman and I will take car nine. I've informed Reginal at the warehouse to assemble a team and have one of the box trucks and cages ready in case of any other creatures that we may have to move. I doubt that they'll have just humans there. At least that's what the police are speculating with the information gathered from their informants.”

“So when do we meet them?” Asked Ray.

“We have two hours to get ready and meet them at their Main Station, I've forwarded a compiled list of gear and tools that we may need to your pads. And Petra, I expect you to help out this time instead of sleeping in the back of the van as per usual.” Enza said as she turned around and started to walk back to the teleportation pad, “Two hours ladies and we fly. I'll be in my laboratory making translators for the humans.”

Petra looked back at the other two, “I thought when we started this place that I was going to be the boss?”

Both Felines laughed, “We agreed to let you think you were...” Rayshida chuckled.

The vampire sighed, “Everyone's a comedian...”

“Except Spengler...” Added Wanja, all three laughed.

*******************

Peter sat on the dirt ground cross-legged, he leaned his back against the hard cold metal bars as he watched Egon and Ray look around the compound for anything that would help in their escape. He wondered if they could notice anything in the dark, it was night and their captors weren't keen on keeping the lights on. They were stuck in that cage for three days, three days of being shouted at, prodded, and given the worse looking gray slime to eat. They were forced to sleep on the hard ground, he was thinking on how much he missed his bed or real food... a toilet!

It was just a routine call, everything looked legit, until they showed up at the address. Peter should have known something was up the moment he laid eyes on the neighborhood, no one there would have been able to afford their services. 

He sighed in frustration, it took these inhuman thugs seconds to take them all down. When he came to, Peter found himself and the rest of the guys in this giant cage with a few more other people. Two pizza delivery guys, two plumbers, and an Avon lady. Whoever these goons were, they were professionals. 

Peter turned to Winston, who sat beside him leaning his head on his knees, “How you holding up Zed?”

“Not good Peter, I told Cynthia that I would be back in a couple of hours... I was supposed to propose to her that night! I had her house all set up with the rose petals, the mood lighting, even her favorite chocolates. I can't help but have this feeling that we're finally done after this escapade. This job scares her...”

“Never loose hope, Winston,” They heard Egon say as he and Ray continued their observations, “we may still have time to get free.”

“And then what, Big guy? We have no idea where in the multiverse we are, none of these clowns speak English or are human for that matter, and they took all our gear and even our boots! Sorry Egon, but I don't have the confidence you have...” Peter leaned his head against the bars.

Ray turned to his companions, “When we get free, we'll figure out a way back home Peter, we should be used to this by now...”

“We'll need to get free tonight...” Egon concluded, “If we don't, there's a possibility that if they move us, our final destination would be an auction house of sorts where we would all be separated. That wouldn't be helpful to our cause...” He was still examining the surroundings. 

“Got a plan?” Winston asked.

“Not yet, but I will soon. We need to know where they keep our equipment...”

“Any chances that Janine could...”

Egon turned to Peter with a serious look in his eyes, “She wouldn't be able to save us this time, we're on our own I'm afraid.”

“God I miss her yelling at me...” Peter groaned, “I actually really do miss it right now...”

“You can't be serious...” Winston began but shut his mouth when he heard some of the thugs started to shout. 

All four men looked around the compound and noticed that the inhuman creatures were started to panic and began to carry energy rifles. Some began to rush while others began to back up vehicles that hovered over the ground to some of the other cages where they had other creatures stored.

“I don't like the look of this...” Peter whispered, “It looks like they're going to move us tonight...”

“We'll have to try to make a run for it when they open the cage...” Ray suggested.

Egon turned his head towards the black sky, he could barely hear the humming of an engine. It was low at first, but then it grew louder and multiplied. He could hear the thugs shouting at each other, one shot an energy riffle towards the noise in the air.

He turned to the rest of the guys, “I think something else is going down...”

The black sky light up as brightly as the sun, illuminating the yard and everyone in it. As the smugglers on the ground began to open fire above on the unseen threat, a deep booming voice from a speaker began to bark to the men below...

“Are we being raided?” Ray asked.

“Sure looks like it.” Replied Winston as he stood up and smiled at the chaos that was happening.

Peter grabbed Egon in a friendly and excited embrace, “I knew it! That crazy redhead found us!”

Egon gently pushed Peter away and adjusted his glasses, “I doubt that she did this Peter, this raid may have been planned for months. It's pure luck that they decided to execute it tonight...”

Other creatures dressed in black riot gear with large bright white markings on their chests and carrying their own energy weapons began to chase the thugs around the compound, not one of the authorities was human from what the guys could see. Some had animal faces and others had inhuman growths or deranged faces. 

It took the police almost an hour before they started to line up as many of the criminals as they could catch, they knew some had escaped but were pleased with the haul they caught. Quite a few of the flying police vans had landed around the compound, ready to load up the criminals. One of the officers, a humanoid with a bulldog's face, walked up to the cage where the guys and other humans were and gave them a good examination with his cautious eyes. 

Peter walked up to him, “Hey pal, listen, we're not from here...”

The officer grabbed his radio and began to speak, again the guys didn't understand what he said. A woman's voice answered him over the radio and in moments, the sky lit up again but in an ethereal purple haze. The lights were flashing and it didn't take the guys long to see the two vans land right in front of the cages, the 'No Ghost' sign on the sides glowing in the dark.

Ray jumped with excitement, “Do you guys see what's on the side of those vehicles?”

“We see it Ray, I don't believe it but I see it.” Peter replied.

The officer turned around and walked up to the black vans as the ladies stepped out, on their back were obviously their versions of the proton pack as well as different tools and gear on their belts that the guys never saw before. The packs seem to shine in the little amount of light, almost seemed to be made out of shiny materials.

“I don't get it.” Winston voiced up, “We're not ghosts, why would their Ghostbusters be here?”

“I'm guessing that they don't just deal in ghosts,” Egon said as he watched the officer talking to the blond and brunet, “Inter-dimensional beings may be in their jurisdiction, which in this case, would be us.”

The fair haired woman turned her head towards their cage, her eyes glowed blue in the shine of the flashing lights. She looked towards her feline companions, they spoke and climbed back into their van. As their van began to ascend into the sky, she turned back to the cage and proceed towards it, her gaze examining the contents before she reached a few feet away from the bars. She pulled out a long and thin crystal out of her pocket and pointed it at them, with her middle finger she pushed her glasses close to her face. The gold frames began to light up and a blue holography screen appeared in front of her, the crystal in her hand began to glow as she held it towards each human in the cage. As she began to touch the screen, Egon realized who she was, or at least who she resembled.

“What do you think that is, Egon?” Ray asked.

“Their version of a PKE Meter would be my guess.” Egon starred at the woman, reptilian blue eyes and pointed ears were enticing to him, perhaps he could communicate with her, “Excuse me, ma'am, can you understand me?”

She looked at him with an emotionless stare, then reverted her eyes back to her screen.

“I don't think she likes you...” Peter whispered to him.

“Obviously she didn't understand me.” Egon replied.

“Then why try?”

He looked at Peter, “I have a hunch...”

“Egon, you scare me with your hunches..”

The guys kept watching the woman, she in turn kept examining them for a few more minutes until she looked back at Egon and raised an eyebrow over one curious eye. Egon looked back as her and gave his own curious look. She turned her head towards the other woman who was still talking with the Dog officer.

“VENKMAN.” She shouted, the guys looked at each other in surprise, except Egon who just smiled.

Egon grinned, “Spengler.”

The woman's head snapped around and stared at him with her eyes wide, she pointed to herself, “Spengler.”

He pointed to himself, “Spengler.”

Her widened eyes told him she understood.

(GBAPOV)

Petra walked slowly down and gave the humans a god looking over, “Aww, they're so cute in their little costumes. Oh, the ones in the jumpers are so adorable. You know, Ray's going to want to keep them all. So Spengs, you wanna know how much one of these go for?”

“No.” She turned to her partner, “Petra, I believe these four are Ghostbusters from another dimension. They have abnormally high levels of ectoplasmic residue, almost the same amount as we do and...”

“That can be from anything...”

“Look at their uniforms, they're similar to ours, and..” She pointed to the blond's shoulder where there was a round piece missing, “They all have that part of their suits cut out, the same place where we have our patches. And this one is calling himself Spengler...”

“He's just mimicking you, you usually introduce yourself to everyone you meet so...”

“I didn't introduce myself. The blond one heard me call you Venkman and then said Spengler. Please tell me how he got that from Venkman?”

“You tell me, you're the brains.” 

“They're our counterparts from another dimension. Look at them, they all have similar appearances to us, not identical but close enough... and the opposite gender...”

Petra leaned closer and examined them, “I don't see the resemblances.”

Enza sighed, “Do we have the order to remove yet?”

“Sure thing.” Petra handed her the tablet, “All signed and sealed. We'll load them up and ship them to the warehouse...”

Enza was reading the information on the tablet, “These four are coming with us to Headquarters...”

Petra gave her a scowled frown, “We can't keep them at the station! They stink, they're messy, they shit where they eat, humans are gross...” 

Enza began to rub her forehead in frustration, “They're still coming with us because Ray and I will have to study them and collect evidence for court. Hand me the translators and lets get them loaded up...”

Petra looked at her with a confused look, “What translators?”

“The ones that I asked you to retrieve that were on Jasper's desk as we were getting ready? That green bag that I asked you three times to put in our van? The ones that you seemed to have forgotten... am I right?”

Petra smiled sheepishly at her, “Maybe.”

RGBPOV

Peter leaned over to Egon, “Is it just me or is that white-haired chick's vein going to pop out of her forehead anytime soon?”

Egon glared at him, “I can relate to her frustrations.” 

Winston and Ray moved closer to the others and starred at the two Ghostbusters who seemed to be arguing. It only took them a few seconds to realize that they've seen this so many times. They both looked at Peter and Egon for a moment, then busted out laughing.

Peter turned to them, “What's so funny?”

“They're laughing at us.” Egon replied.

“Why?” Peter was so confused.

“Never mind...” Egon said as he tried to get the blond's attention. Both women looked back at him and starred curiously, “I have an idea...”

He used his hands and signed to them, hoping that sign language on this world was similar enough to communicate. *Can you understand me?* 

The blond eyes grew larger again with excitement and signed back, *Yes, I can. We are here to help you.*

Egon turned to his companions with a smile and relief on his face, “Gentlemen, we are officially rescued.”

********************

Peter couldn't keep his eyes from wondering as he gazed out the window's of the flying vehicle. All the guys were looking out and astounded of how this city was so similar but vastly different than their own New York. The van flew around their Statue of Liberty, a giant green humanoid she-wolf in the same dress, with the same crown, holding the same book... but instead of a torch, she held up a long sword straight up into the sky that glowed brightly.

“This is incredible!” Ray exclaimed in child like excitement, “This place is amazing! Flying vehicles, so many species, the technology is so advanced...”

“Now Ray, don't get too excited. They still haven't probed us yet...” Said Peter as he kept seated in the back of the van, he looked up through the glass at the driver. The brunet was driving while the blond was going through her crystal tablet, both still chatting to each other, “That one with the snake-eyes gives me the creeps...”

Egon chuckled, “She's a Spengler...”

All three turned to him surprised. 

“That explains so much.” Said Peter, “So.. the other one really is a Venkman?”

Egon grinned at him, “Yes. I had a hunch when I saw them, it wouldn't be a surprise to see our counter parts in another dimension. There are literately an infinite number of possible worlds...”

“Hey guys, I think we're going down.” Winston said as he and Ray looked back out the window, “Is THAT their Headquarters?”

Al four looked though the windshield and stared in awe at the massive building. The driver turned back to them and gave them a sly smirk, she turned back to the other one and began chatting again almost laughing. The other sighed and answered her companion in a low monotone voice.

“This place must cost a fortune...” Peter whispered as they entered the garage,his heart almost leaped out of his chest as he saw the other service vehicles, employees, and the two stories of offices.

“Imagine working here, Peter!” Ray asked in again his child like wonder.

“I'm imagining I own it...” His eyes going back and forth, until he spotted the red haired elf in the suit, “I think there's their Janine...”

Sure enough, there was a red headed man with the same pointy ears at the their female counterparts, dressed in a sweater and dressed pants with his arms crossed and that same irritated look on his face that they've seen plenty of times. As the van landed, he walked to the passenger's side and waited for their Spengler to get out.

The doors to the back of the van swung open, the guys turned their heads and saw the tigress greeted them with a genuine smile and gentle emerald eyes. She waved gleefully to them to follow her as their Venkman and Spengler got out of the van and began talking with their male Janine. As the tigress lead them towards the main desk, the guys kept staring in awe of the grand building.

Peter felt a nudge and noticed the tigress handed him a thin silver cord with a purple stone set in the middle. She pointed to her neck and then made a motion towards his.

“You want me to do what with this?” He asked.

“Put it around your neck and you'll be able to understand them.” Egon replied, he had already put his on, “It's a translator...”

The tigress turned to Egon and began to speak to him, he nodded in reply, “It's an incredible device.”

Peter put his on, he felt the ends clasp together automatically at the back of his neck, “So we'll be finally able to understand what they've been saying.”

The tigress looked back at Peter, “We don't just use them for dimensional beings, we use them a lot when dealing with entities that can't speak like tyrants and davernoses...”

“Before we continue with the pleasantries, perhaps we should take the time and properly introduce ourselves...” The blond said as all eight circled around each other. The guys on one side and the girls on the other with their Janine-guy behind the She-Spengler.

“Excellent idea Spengs,” The lady Venkman replied as she turned to the guys, “I'll be honest, I was enjoying your garbled chatter.”

“Please Venkman, keep your childish antics to yourself until AFTER introductions...” Spengs handed their Janine her crystal pad.

“Fine mom...” She turned back to the guys, “Gentleman, welcome to Ghostbusters International Headquarters! (their Spengler groaned and face palmed herself) Located in the gorgeous city of New York, in the greatest country in the world, the beautiful and majestic United States of Avalon! We are your Hostesses with the Mostesses! That lovely tigress at the end is our Head of Engineering, the sweet and lovable Rayshida Stantz, we call her Ray for short, the black powerhouse kitten is our Chief Mechanic, the strong and ferocious Wanjay Zeddemore, and there's the brains behind the operations but a giant bore at parties and sorry guys but she's married to her Lab, the talented and brilliant Dr. Enza Spengler, and I am the public relations officer and co-administrator with Spengs, Dr. Petra Venkman, I got the brains, the beauty and all the jams...”

“What she means is that she's got a big mouth and she's the first to do something crazy...” Added Wanja as she chuckled.

“... or get us in trouble..” Joined Rayshida as they both laughed.

“Oh we know exactly where you girls are coming from.” Winston laughed as he and Ray turned to look at Peter, “We seem to have our own.”

Peter grinned, “Dr Peter Venkman, Dr. Egon Spengler, Dr. Ray Stantz and Winston Zeddemore.”

“That was cheep.” Voiced Ray.

“I just don't feel the energy.” He replied.

“Peter may be feeling emasculated by the size of their operation.” Said Egon, “You said you're international?”

“Yuppers,” the corner of Petra's mouth quirked up, “we have...” She turned to Enza, “...How many do we have out there Spengs?”

Enza thought for a moment, “One hundred and seventy-two in Northern Avalon and another eighty-six world wide with another five being built as we speak.”

The guys jaws dropped at the size of their operations.

“How?” Peter asked, “How did you guys do all that in such a short amount of time?”

The girls looked oddly to each other except Enza, she turned to Peter, “It took over fifty-five years to accomplish all this, as well as good business practices, hard work, dedication and proper investments.”

“Fifty years?” The guys except Egon exclaimed in confusion.

“What exactly are your species to have such long life spans?” Egon asked.

“The two kittens are Felina, I'm a vampire and Spengs is a storm dragon, we are an equal opportunity employer.” She smirked.

“You don't look like a dragon..” Said Peter.

“Dragons can change their forms anytime they want!” Ray shrieked with excitement, “Wow, a real dragon, I wonder if her real form resembles that...”

“Um...” Petra waved at him, “Vampires are cool too, you know...”

“As much as it could be entertaining to hear all about you magical critters and dragons and witches and bears and golden brick roads, but we have to get back to our own dimension..” Peter stated, “We got our own business to run.”

The three female Ghostbusters looked at each other with worried look, but Enza sighed, “I'll tell them.”

“Tell us what?” Asked Egon, he didn't like the looks on their faces.

“Yes, we do have a Dimensional Portal that can take you home. After running a battery of tests we will be able to local your dimension...”

Egon crossed his arms and stared intently at his dragon counterpart, he could hear the undertone in her voice, “...however...”

She glanced at him for a moment, then tore her eyes from his before continuing, “...however, since you all were victims of the dimensional smugglers, you are technically property and evidence for the prosecution...”

Egon finished in a discouraged voice, “So we're being held here until they're done with their case. Is that correct?”

“Yes.” She answered him softly, “I promise we will make your stay with us as comfortable as possible...”

“That's not fair and we're not going to settle for that!” Peter shouted, “We have our own business to run, people we care about were left back there worried and wondering what happened to us. Sorry dragon lady but we're not staying!” 

“Peter, I don' think they have a choice in the matter.” Egon replied, his voice still discontented. 

“We don't.” Enza crossed her arms, “We have custody of you for the moment because the city isn't set up to handle inter-dimensional creatures, so we take care of them for the city until they decided what to do with them. However, we will be making sure that the city and all other organizations are aware that the intent after court is to return you all back to your dimension...”

“That still doesn't fix the problem OUR business is in. Some of us don't have the fancy big corporate company like you girls do. Our business has us and that's all. We can't afford to hang around here while your courts take years to decide what to do with us!” Peter was furious.

“Look Pal, I hear you, we all do, but there's not way we can let you go, we're not going to jail because you can't sit on your hands for a bit and we can't take the risk of something happening to you guys back in your world before court...” Petra barked back.

“Why don't we send a crew there?” Rayshida asked, “I mean, I'm sure our gear all works the same...”

“That's the dumbest idea I've heard!” replied Petra.

“Actually, that's an excellent idea...” Enza said as she turned to Egon, “If we sent a team to your world, would that be alright? Do you have someone there that can run your station until you can get back?”

“Whoa!” Snapped Petra, “We can't just send a crew to another dimension, the city won't pay for it because helping to run someone else's business in another world doesn't classify as necessary operations. That's going to come out of our pockets...”

“It's not like we can't afford it Petra.” Wanja snapped back, “Stop being so stingy.”

“Well not all of our guys are trained...”

“Holztman and her team are trained in inter-dimensional travel. I've taken them to multiple dimensions myself. They would be the perfect team to send to their world and I know they would enjoy a change of environment and its challenges.” Enza voiced.

“When were you taking the kids out on dimensional field trips?” Petra asked her.

“If you read the memo I sent you then you'd know.” She answered.

“And how are you going to disguise them? They're obviously not going to pass for human, Spengs.”

“I have a spell for that.” 

Egon stared at her, “A spell? As in magic?”

“Yes.” She turned to him, this is a magically driven world. Our technology is called techno-wizardry, everything you've seen works and powers with it..”

Egon's eyes glowed with the enticing possibilities, “Magic and technology working together, that's incredible. If I may ask...”

“I don't think Janine would like that..” Peter tried once more, “..she's not going to be a happy camper about all of this.”

“We are trying to accommodate you, Dr Venkman...” Enza tried to assure him.

“What Spengs' saying Pete, that we really don't HAVE to do this but my scaly besty here has a huge heart, actually and figuratively, and a giant sap for the screwed, you boys at this moment...” Petra was obviously getting annoyed with Peter's whining, “...if she wasn't here, I'd let the cops have you guys and wait until they're done to ship you off...”

“Petra!” Enza growled, “For someone who's emphatic, you don't seem to have any empathy. They've just been ripped from their world and just told that they have to stay here, leaving their business alone. How would you like it if the roles were reversed? They are entitled to express their frustrations and anger. Please, for once show some professionalism and compassion. Is that so impossible to expect from you?”

There wasn't a sound in the garage after Enza let out her rant, all the employees were gawking at her, no one had ever heard her snap like that. The lead scientist had always kept her demeanor professional and calm. No one had every heard her raise her voice in anger, until now.

Petra turned to the crews, “GET BACK TO WORK!” She turned back to Enza, who was obviously not acting like herself, “You OK Enz?”

The dragon took a few deep breaths, “I apologize for the outburst, however, I stand by what I've said.”

“Fine, I'll be nicer if it'll make you happy, Babe...”

“Dr Spengler, Maintenance is on line two and Leo from Japan is on line three, they have an issue with a haunted forest and need your assistance...” Their secretary called out, he was giving Petra a satisfied look.

“Thank you Jasper, I'll take it in my office,” She turned to the others, “I suggest that we allow the gentlemen to shower and be given clean clothes. We have the overflow from the gift shops in the store room, there will be plenty of clothes for them there...”

Petra's eyes grew large, “But that's for...”

Enza gave her best friend a dark look.

Petra backed off, “OK fine, they can have whatever they want. See? I'm being nice.”

“Hey Enza...” Wanjay called to her, “Where are we going to put them?”

“They'll take my room, I have no use for it at the moment. It has a master bathroom and it's large enough to accommodate all four comfortably after Maintenance sets it up...” She replied as she walked towards the offices, “And I'm sure they'll need to be fed...” She said last as she walked into her office, closing the door behind her.

“Huh, look at that woman just dumping her new lab rats on us...” Petra eyes narrowed at the guys as a corner of her mouth lifted in a partial smile.

“I am not going to anyone's lab rat.” Winston stated clearly.

“Don't worry Zed, no one's going to be a lab rat,” Peter turned to Egon, “Right big guy?”

“Well...” Egon tried to think of away to say it without disturbing his companions, “...to be honest... Dr Spengler's going to be testing us for everything she can possibly test for because I know I would if I was in her shoes...”

“Why?” Asked Ray, “I'm sure they've seen humans before...”

“Actually, you guys are the first humans we've ever seen,” Wanjay looked at her watch, “Oh, look at the time, it's seven in the morning. I'm done. You girls can deal with this mess, I'm headed to my boo's. I'll see you guys tonight.” 

“Have a good day, Wanjay.” Rayshida said.

“Bring me back some baby back ribs tonight!” Petra called out as Wanjay was headed to the teleporter.

“Sorry but he made me chicken wings for breakfast...” She answered back just as the teleporter went off and she disappeared in a flash of light.

Petra turned to the guys, “Her fiance's a great chef and has his own successful restaurant, sometimes Zee comes in with delicious left overs...”

“So we're the first humans you're encountered?” Egon asked.

Rayshida motioned to the guys, “Yeah, we know about you guys but we don't know anything really about your species, except that you're dangerous and listed as an invasive species.”

“That doesn't sound very good.” Ray voiced with concern.

“Don't worry, no one's going to touch you guys while you're under our care. Come on, I'll take you to the store room for the clothes then the public showers, I'm sure your room will be ready by the time you guys are done. You guys will feel a hundred times better after a good hot shower.” Rayshida motioned for the guys to follow her towards the transporter pad.

Petra stretch her arms out over her head and yawned, “Yep that sounds like a great plan, a nice hot shower and beddy bye...” She turned to Peter with a malicious grin, “Hey Venkman, if you need someone to cuddle today, you can come stay with me and we can compare birthmarks...”

Peter starred at her, “Sorry but that kinda sounds creepy you know, you're supposed to be me...”

Rayshida rolled her eyes, “I have no idea how you're able to pick up people with those terrible lines...”

“It's simple really. After they laugh and tell me it's a bad line, I go in with 'I know but it's a fantastic icebreaker, Hi...” She moved closed to Peter, giving him bedroom eyes, “...my name is Dr. Petra Venkman and I own a multi-billion dollar Empire. Wanna see my yacht?”

“Yeah, the yacht you bought ten years ago and it's never left harbor because it has no engine.”

“You bought a yacht with no engine? Why?” Ray asked astonished.

“It was a shit ton cheaper.” Petra grinned, “But she still impresses the hotties.”

“OK, that would definitely be something I would do...” Peter replied.

As the group slowly made their way to the pad, Egon could help but looked back at Enza's office window. She had the blinds open as she talked on the phone while looking at a large old tome, her mouth moving as she spoke into the phone seemed to memorized him. Her eyes lifted from the pages and starred back at him, they seemed to be locked in a gaze that felt eternal, but was only a moment, then she turned to her computer screen.

Egon shook his head to try to clear it, it could just be disorientation from being disconnected from their own world and in one so vastly different. Regardless of the reason why they ended up here, he wanted to take the opportunity to learn as much as he could from this world. The possibilities he could transfer to their own business would be such a tremendous help. He wondered if his counterpart would be willing to allow him to conduct his own research here, of course under her supervision...

*****************************

Petra laid across the back seat of her car as she inhaled the sweet but pungent smoke from her joint while she listened to classic rock on the car radio. The sun was already over the horizon and illuminating the city with it's warm golden light, waking some from their short slumber. It was her 'real' office, away from the phones, office chores were never her thing. Send her off against any grisly ghoul. ignorant gods or demonic beast, that's where she shined. 

“I thought I'd find you up here..” She herd the scientist call out as she stopped right beside the car and starred down at her friend.

Petra looked up at her and gave her that stoner grin, “What's up, Babe?”

“I need your thumbprint for these new orders.” Enza replied.

“Well then...” She sat up and made room, “...step into my office, young lady.”

Enza hoped onto the seat beside her and handed her the tablet, in exchanged, Petra handed her the joint and began to go over the forms on the tablet.

“I really shouldn't..” Enza said to herself mostly as she took a hit herself and coughed it out.

“You know, if you smoked more with me, you wouldn't cough so bad...”

“I rather not, I tend to be less efficient while high and most of my time is...”

“You need to stop living in that lab of yours.... hey... is this a raise for Jasper?”

Enza took another hit and passed to her, “Yes, we are finally going to be paying him what he's worth and I don't want to hear a word about it.”

“I still don't understand why you just won't let him take you out for at least ONE date, then you can at least say you tried before dashing his dreams.”

“Absolutely not!” They kept passing the joint to each other, “As I've stated when I passed the No Dating The Subordinates policy, not only am I NOT interesting in dating anyone, but if I was, it would not be a soft elf who would be annihilated during foreplay.” She looked back at her friend, “So, when are you going to tell what's bothering you?”

“You'll think it's stupid...”

“Of course I will, but I'll still support you.”

Petra sighed, “Fine. But it's dumb but it's pissing me off...”

“What is it?”

“It's not my original idea...”

“What is?”

Petra waved her arms all around, “All of this! Ghostbusting! It's not my idea. Some yahoos thought of it too and that just pisses me off.”

“You're upset because someone else thought of the idea as well... in another dimension...”

“I know, dumb right? But I guess because my ego's so huge that I just assumed that no one had this idea...”

“Yes it's dumb, but I understand where you're coming from. But maybe you should think of it this way...”

“Oh? What way?”

Enza thought for a moment, “Let's say that fifty percent of the multiverse has Ghostbusters in them, alright?”

“Sure.”

“If we use our own current financial algorithms, we can make a very close theory that out of that fifty percent, only twenty percent would be successful And from that twenty percent, less than one percent would where we are.” She smiled at her and wrapped her arm around Petra, giving her a loving embrace, “We ARE that less than one percent. These other Ghostbusters, they don't sound anywhere as profitable nor responsible as we are. I can safely say that we might be the very best in the multiverse... and I really want to find out myself... so many experiments and research...”

Petra laid her head on Enza's shoulder, “Aw thanks Spengs, you really know how to cheer up my narcissistic heart.”

“We've known each other since kindergarten.”

“Hey, Enz?

“Yes, Petra?”

“Do you ever think about... you know, settling down and having a family.”

“I do already have a family...” 

“I'm not talking about all of us being a family, I'm talking about getting a partner, having kids...”

“I already have children and a husband...”

“Your inventions are not children and you're not married to your Lab.”

“No Petra, I don't think of having children nor a mate. Especially a mate. I take it you have been?”

“Well...” Petra thought for a moment, “...this situation with people getting kidnapped out of their own dimensions, and the line of work we're in... I was just thinking about that epiphany everyone has at least once in their life. I think I'd like to have kids some day...”

Enza looked at her friend with a strange look, “I thought you'd never want to have children..”

“No, I said that I would never carry a baby, ever. I like my bod the way it is. I was thinking of maybe get a little honey and she can have them for us and maybe add a stud into the mix so he can do the man thing...”

The dragon in elven form laughed loudly, “The seductress Petra Venkman thinking about settling down! I can hear all the admirers crying for their loss...”

“I'm just thinking about a legacy, besides this business. Don't you think about your legacy?”

“I don't have to because my legacy is already established. In the last fifty years, I have contributed greatly to the science community! My name shall live on and my research and breakthroughs are being taught in universities all over the world! If I die tomorrow, I will die in peace for I have accomplished almost everything I've wanted to achieve. Now...now I get to play in the lab...” She turned to Petra and gave her a dark smile, “...I have a new species to study... it could mean another Noble Prize. I can't wait to get them into the chair and see what makes them tick. I am SO excited to get those humans into my lab this evening...”

Petra laughed, “I love it when you get high, you get so emotional and mad scientisty. So sexy.”

The two cuddle in the back of the car and just stared off into the cloud filled sky in silence.

“So... you never want a mate? Ever?”

“No Petra, I refused to let the Mystical Cosmic Forces determine who they think I should mate with or be a brood mare. I left Draconia with you and your family for that main reason, among others. And there are absolutely no Storm dragon or any other dragons on this continent. So there is no chance, and this factory is closed.”

“So... never a little baby Spengs?”

“Sorry, no little baby Spengs...”

“I think a little baby Spengs would be awesome...”

To Be Continued...


	2. Chapter two

Chapter 2

Peter casually channel surfed as he sat on the couch, the guys had just woken up from their long nap and was waiting in the room until they were needed in the lab. The room itself was spacious and had plenty of room after the two bunk beds and dressers were added. Besides the room, the bathroom was fully equipped for their sanitary needs. The beds were comfortable and the large window in the center gave Egon and Ray plenty of viewing space as they watched the many races walk on the green streets below and the variety of flying vehicles in the air all in several rows. There was even a desk with plain and lined paper with pens and pencils, in case they needed it.

“How long are we going to wait until they decide to come get us?” Winston asked as he was keeping himself occupied by doing push ups, “And does anyone know what was in that sandwich they fed us?”

“I'm guessing it's not chicken...” Peter replied as he finally landed on a basket ball game, “Well, at least this looks good... is that player a ball of fur? Or is that the ball?”

“Didn't one of them mention they ate chicken wings?” Ray turned to them and smiled, “Chicken is still chicken, right?”

“I'm going to go with that their chicken isn't like our chicken.” Egon added, “Their world is so similar to ours but still so different. I'm not sure about you gentlemen, but I'm going to take every opportunity to examine this world. I feel that we have a lot to learn from our stay with our more profitable counterparts.”

“I'd say, I still want to know their secret.” Peter leaned back into the couch as he watched the game on the glass screen, “How do we get from us to them?”

“Apparently good business practices, hard work, dedication and proper investments.” Answered Egon.

Ray turned to the other door in the room across from the bathroom, “Anyone know what's in there?”

“Just a few boxes and some books...” Winston said as he stood up and stretched.

“Boxes? Oh that sounds interesting...” Peter grinned as he jumped off the couch and raced to the door.

“Peter, it's rude to go through someone's personal affects.” Egon tried to reason with him, “It's probably their Spengler's property, I wouldn't...”

“Oh I know what you wouldn't do Egon, that's why you're still single.” Peter replied from inside the closet.

“So are you!” Egon threw back.

Ray turned to him, “I thought you and Janine...”

“That was over months ago,” Replied Peter, “I still don't know why...”

“And you won't Peter.” Egon responded with a disgruntled tone, “It's private.”

“Books... books... more books... does she have anything else but books? We can't even read them because of the language barrier.. oh! Photo album!”

“Peter don't!” 

Peter came out of the closest while flipping through the book, “There's no baby pictures... that's disappointing.”

“Who's album is it?” Winston asked as he joined Peter as they both Sat on the couch, Egon and Ray, both curious, moved behind them as Peter started at the beginning.

“It starts off with this picture, I guess it's Petra and Enza... as kids?” Peter looked at the other pictures on the page, “It looks like they're just coming into New York on a fairy taking a selfy with the statue of liberty... is it even called that here? Hmm... they immigrated here I guess”

“They don't look more than ten years old...” Ray mentioned as they flipped through the pages slowly.

“In looks only Ray, they could be a lot older older than that with their long lifespans.” Egon added.

There were many pictures of family events, birthdays, graduations, school, college, award ceremonies, many frozen memories set stationary forever. There were even pictures of Petra dressed in a green 1960s style Army uniform standing beside Enza, an older couple resembling Petra and three large good looking men.

“So their Venkman went into the army? I wouldn't have made THAT choice...” Peter said.

“There's nothing wrong with serving your country,” Winston looked at the uniform closely, “reminds me of what they wore during Vietnam...”

“At least we know that they're more similar that I expected.” Egon said, “I guess war is a common factor in all dimensions...”

“Wow, their Spengler doesn't smile much does she?” Peter mentioned as every picture had her starring at the camera with an expressionless face, he turned to Egon, “Reminds me of someone back in college...” 

“Oh look!” Winston got excited, “It's their firehouse! It looks almost like ours! And that car almost looks like Ecto!”

“Fascinating..” Egon leaned over and viewed the picture, “...this must be when they first started. See Peter? They started just like us. So there is a high potential that we can achieve something similar as they have.”

“But if this is Enza's album, how come there's no pictures of dragons? Those people don't look anything like her, did Petra's parents adopt her?” Ray's voice was laced with disappointment, “I was hoping to see one...”

“Oh I like mysteries..” Winston grinned...

“This is one mystery that I advise we don't stick our noses into. I don't want us to insult our hosts while we're at their mercy if you get my meaning.” Egon voiced more seriously. “I suggest Peter that you put it back and we forget that we saw it...” 

Suddenly, they heard a soft knock at their door, “Hey, you guys awake and decent?”

Peter hastily shoved the album under the couch, “We're all good here!”

The door slid open and revealed Rayshida behind, “I hope I wasn't disturbing you guys...”

“There's nothing to disturb.” Replied Winston with a hint of resentment.

She came into the room, the door closed automatically behind her, “Yeah, sorry about that. We'll get you access to the recreational floors, that'll keep you guys busy for a while.” She smiled at them dressed in their merchandise, “The clothes OK?”

“Definitely,” Peter tugged at his gray sweater, “I'm impressed with the quality...”

“I don't mean to be impatient, Dr Stantz, but when are we going to be able to at least get a hold of our people?” Egon asked.

“Actually, that's why I'm here, Egon, Enza and her team are ready for you. Since it's only three in the afternoon, she wants to squeeze you guys in before dinner. It's not going to take long and I promise it won't hurt. It's just a little scan and a pin prick...”

“Why a pin prick?” Asked Ray.

“DNA.” Egon replied with a suspicious look on his face, “And now, it begins... the scientists have become the specimens...”

“Oh come on now, it's not going to be that bad, I mean, well there is the questionnaires that she has planned for you...”

“I have a question...” Peter raised his hand, “What was the mystery meat in the sandwiches...”

“Honey smoked unicorn flank, deli style.”

“WHAT?!” Peter, Ray and Winston shouted in shock, Ray's face seemed to turn a little green with the though of eating such a majestic magical creature.

Egon thought for a moment, “Surprisingly quite enjoyable.”

Rayshida smiled with pride, “Thank you, it's actually from my parent's own recipe. They own a ranch back in Wyoming, I always get a few sent to me now and again if I don't get the chance to visit. It's actually Enza's favorite and she hates any meat cooked or smoked... unless it's drenched in sugar.” 

“So your Spengler just loves the sweets does she?” Peter chuckled as he nudged Egon, “Do you guys have Twinkies here?”

“The little vanilla cakes with the cream filling? Oh yeah, it's a staple in the lab, Enza requires a high amount of sugar for substance so she's constantly shoving it in her face...” She smiled at them, “So are you guys ready to see the Lab?”

Egon and Ray were more excited than Peter and Winston, but the chance to talk to Janine and let her know what's going on was their first plan of action.

As they left the room and headed towards the transport pad, Egon couldn't help but ask more questions about his doppelganger, “So does your Dr Spengler eat only sugar?”

“Enza? She eats other stuff, like meat, blood, organs, skin, fur, or scales... she loves to crunch on bones...” Rayshida replied, “but sugar is easier and it does almost the same thing for her anyways. And less messy when she eats...”

“That's what threw me off!” Said Ray, “I thought that she would be a carnivore, does she eat gems too?”

Rayshida looked at him strangely, “Ah... no. Do your dragons do where you come from?”

The guys looked at each other with questioned looks, Peter turned to her, “We kinda did have a dragon for a few days, but we had to get rid of it because it was causing a huge mess in the city and we didn't have time or a way to study it...”

Rayshida gave Peter another strange look, “Your dragons are pets? Oh, don't say that in front of Enza...”

“No..” Egon corrected, “One of my ancestors conjured up a dragon and kept it in stasis for years until we fumbled upon it and woke it up. Then we had to literally put it back to sleep. In general, supernatural creatures are incredibly rare and very far between on our world and most don't display the amount of sentient thought as you all do...”

“So, what peoples do you have then in your world..?”

“People like us.” Replied Winston, “We're the only sentient being on the planet, right Egon?”

Egon thought for a moment, “Well, there are dolphins, apes, ravens...”

“Dolphins don't count, they're still animals...” Peter replied, “she's talking about how many non-human people we have on earth and there's just us.”

“Sounds boring.” They heard Petra say as she walked up behind them, “Where's the variety? I need flavors. I mean, once you've had a Centaur's di-”

“Venkman!” Rayshida growled, “Come on! I just woke up, too soon sister...”

“So did I..” She gave a sly smirk and winked at Peter, “It's hard to sleep without something warm beside me...”

Peter took a step back, “Trust me, I'm flattered but the whole undead thing is a real turn off...”

“What undead thing?” Petra asked as she gave him a confused look.

“Didn't you say you were a vampire?' Asked Ray.

“Yeah...?” Petra was confused by his question, “Not getting the point...”

“Vampires on our world are blood thirsty creatures that were brought back from the dead by an evil spirit...” Winston tried to explain.

Rayshida blurted out a roaring laugh as Petra just looked at them stunned, “Wait, what?”

“Not all of them, Winston.” Egon turned to him, “The ones in Lupisville didn't seem that undead and there was the Count, he was polite...”

“Oh my god, I've got to tell this one to the girls...” She turned to Petra who was obviously not impressed with this tidbit of information, “...this is gold...”

“First off, I ain't dead or undead, 100% living unless there's a great hockey game on then yeah I might call in dead.” Petra turned to the guys, “We should give you the ground rules for the Lab, Spengs is pretty anal retentive about her lab.”

“Rule number one..” Began Rayshida, “Do not touch a thing! Look with your eyes but not your hands...”

“We're not kids.” Peter rolled his eyes.

“How many times have I told you to NOT touch anything in my lab and you've never listened? Even cause a few accidents yourself?” Egon asked him, “I completely understand that rule.”

“Rule number two, you have to put on those stupid weird boot covers over your shoes.” Added Petra, “She likes to keep the place clean.”

“Rule number three, do not touch the Star Trek collection or the Doctor Who collection. Even though she's a HUGE nerd, she is a HUGE geek at heart. And it's also her Hoard and dragons have a serious thing about their Hoards.”

“You have Star Trek AND Doctor Who here?” Egon was impressed.

“Spengs and I watched that stuff growing up. If it had anything science in the show, we'd watch it. I personally enjoyed Firefly and Red Dwarf. She's so obsessed with Star Trek that Ray and her built a Holodeck during the construction of this place.” Chuckled Petra.

“And the transporters,” Rayshida smiled, “And the...”

“You have a Holodeck?” Both Ray and Egon gasped.

“What's a Holodeck?” Peter asked.

“It's a room fitted with a realistic virtual reality computer that generates anything you can think of.” Ray turned to Petra, “You actually have a Holodeck?”

“If I don't go on any calls at the start of my shift tonight, I'll take you guys to go check it out.” Rayshida offered, “We have a larger one at the warehouse for training purposes, the one here is just for recreation. But if you wanna check out something outrageous, ask Enza to show you our plans for the Enterprise...”

“You're building the Enterprise?” Now Egon was almost speechless, “That is impossible! The capital alone that's required for materials and labor alone would bankrupt even your business. The amount of energy that the warp core requires is astronomical and unrealistic! And would be difficult to contain, plus...”

Rayshida raised her hands in protest, “That's what we're working on right now. It's just a hobby and we've got tons of serious stuff we need to do...”

“Is that all the rules?” Winston asked.

“Pretty much, just use your common sense and NOT get on her bad side. There is NOTHING in this world that she loves more than that lab...” Petra gave them all a serious stare.

“That's not true...” The tigress voiced, “...I'm sure that she loves us and your family more than her lab...”

“I don't want to ever put that to the test...” Petra said as they reached the transporter, “...just listen to the rules and everything should just be fine...”

They all stepped onto the pad and as Petra pressed one of the rose colored button, she ginned at the guys, “Did I mention that Spengs gets a little too Frankenstein sometimes...?”

“Don't start scaring them Petra...”

Before the guys could respond, they all appeared in a flash in front of a room set up as a lounge with one wall dedicated to Enza's geek like hoard. Glass cabinets were filled to the brim with the toys, action figures and merchandise. Two large red couches with a lightly stained wooden coffee table were set up in the middle, the far wall had a stainless steel counter top with multiple coffee makers and baked goods. The lounge area was separated from the laboratory space by a clear glass like wall showing the vastness of the workspace.

Petra handed them a pair of plastic shoe covers, “Cover them up boys, we're about to enter the dragon's cave so we need to look presentable...”

As they walked through the double glass door into the main area, they saw the equipment, stations, and many other important machinery. There was quite a few inhuman assistants working on various projects unaware of the group, Petra began to approach one that was busy recording information on a clip board while looking in a microscope. The individual had a normal humanoid torso but the bay colored equine body was more pony like with thick legs and seemed a little overweight. He was just a bit taller than the group, his long dark blond hair was tied tightly in a pony tail at the base of his head. His humanoid torso was dressed in a gray sweater, white dress shirt and blue tie with a white lab coat and his horse body was left bare. His blond tail covered his bits behind. 

Petra walked up to the equine who was too occupied with his current task to notice them, “Hey Roger Dodger! Where's your boss at?”

The centaur turned around and gave them all a warm smile and adjusted his oval framed glasses, “Hello Dr Venkman, Dr Spengler is in the main test room. NYPD brought in a large crate an hour ago and she's been in there with it while Fawna's spotting.”

The guys took a step back as they stared at his face, Peter turned back to a stunned Egon, “Is it just me or does he look like a chunked up version of you, without the horse part...” He whispered. 

Egon gave him a furrowed look, “I would never get that over weight...”

“What did she get?” Asked Rayshida excitedly. 

Roger shrugged his shoulders, “Not sure, all I know was that they didn't want it at their station. As soon as she opened it, she squealed like a young filly on Yule morning and then carried the crate to the room with Fawna in tow...”

Petra turned to the tigress, “Must be something techy for her to squeal like that, nothing else does...”

“Are these the humans?” Roger asked as he walked closer to them, “Fascinating... they don't look much differently than many of the races here...” He walked over to one of the counters and began to grab several thick folders that were piled on top, “She did instruct me to have the men fill out these while she's testing whatever she has...”

“I don't do well on tests...” Peter said as Roger handed him one of the folders.

“It's not a test, it's just a questionnaire to gather personal information on each one of you to compare with your counterparts on this world. Dr Spengler wishes to conduct a study on the physical and mental differences and to what degree do they change as compared to the degree and distance of the dimension they reside in to each other...” Roger handed Egon a folder three times the size of the others, “She's very eager to meet other dimensional Ghostbusters to further her research, so please be completely honest with your answers.”

“Why is Egon's bigger?' Ray asked.

“Because of the genius factor.” Answered Egon, “Because we both have a higher than average intelligence, correct?”

Roger nodded, “Exactly...” He stared at Egon for a moment, “Have we met before? You seem familiar...”

Egon was about to answer until a very urgent and frightening thought came to his mind, he turned to Petra with eyes wide open in fear, “Where's the testing room? I need to get there immediately!”

“Whoa there Tex,” Petra chuckled, “I'm sure that...”

“NO!” Egon became frantic and dropped his folder back on the counter, “You don't understand. That crate came from the NYPD, it could our equipment and in the wrong hands can be disastrous...”

Petra laughed, “Buddy, no one's more qualified...”

“MY PACK HAS AN EXPERIMENTAL NUCLEOR REACTOR INSTALLED THAT IF ISN'T VENTED IN A TIMELY FASHION WILL OVER HEAT AND EXPLODE TAKING THIS BUILDING AND EVERYONE HERE WITH IT!”

Ray's face became pale, “We were going to test it that night before we were kidnapped...”

Rayshida and Petra looked at each other with worried looks, “We... we better... just to make sure... ” Petra said to her as they both began to rush towards one of the halls.

Egon ran after them with the others behind, he had to make sure that Enza wasn't testing his pack. The paced quickened until they ran through the double doors into the testing room to see a humanoid deer assistant at the console as she was paying attention to the experiment happening inside the safe room.

“FAWNA!” Petra shouted as the group rushed in, “Where's Spengs?”

The girl became immediately terrified at the sight of the excited group, “Dr Venkman! Sh..she's in...in the.. the...” She pointed to the windows of the testing area.

Petra and Egon gazed down into the room below and saw Enza there and sure enough, she had Egon's pack strapped to her back and particle gun in hand. She looked like she was writing things down on her tablet with her free hand, across the room was a black wall with clearly a chard area still smoking.

“NUTS!” Egon shouted as he noticed the flashing red light on the pack directly behind her head, “Can't she hear the alarm?”

“She usually ignores alarms..” Petra said as she pressed the intercom, “Hey Spengs, shut that pack down right now!”

“You can't just shut it down, it has to be vented!” Egon exclaimed, “I need to get in there immediately and do it...”

They heard the pack's loud alarm sound through the intercom, “Was that you Petra? What did you say? I can't hear you over the noise this pack is making...” They heard Enza's voice ask.

Egon turned to Petra, “I need to get in there now!”

“Ray! Unlock the door and get him in there!” Petra barked.

Rayshida immediately punched the code to the door and opened it, not even a second passed before Egon was running through and rushed down the stairs following the loud and sharp beeping. 

Enza turned immediately towards him with a curious look on her face, “How did you get in here? This is a restricted area...”

Egon immediately spun her around and began to vent the pack, “You're moments away from blowing us all up!” The beeping was quickly replaced with a low whistling sound as the exhaust began to blow through the vent.

“I have everything under control...” Enza responded with a serious tone, “I am after all...”

Egon examined his pack carefully for any signs of damage, “Do you have any idea what you have strapped to your back at this moment?”

“A nuclear accelerator powered by uranium...” Enza replied, “I assure you Dr Spengler that I did had everything under control...”

Egon turned her around and gave her a very serious and stern look, “Then why didn't you vent it?”

“Because the explosion would have been contained in this room, the most the building would have felt is a slight level one tremor. This room is not only reinforced by the most dense and strongest materials know in our world, but I've also installed certain protection spells to ensure that the rest of the building would be safe...”

Egon couldn't believe what he was hearing, “Are you telling me that you were purposely letting the pack over load?”

She looked at him with a straight face, “Yes.”

“WHY?!” 

“Because I wanted to see if my dragon hide could take the explosion...”

“WHY WOULD YOU RISK YOUR LIFE FOR THAT?”

She looked at him curiously as one brow raised over her eye, “You don't need to shout. I'm right here. And you can take your hands off me now, please...”

Egon didn't realize that he was still holding her shoulders tightly and immediately let go, he took a long deep breath to calm his frightened nerves, “I'm sorry, but why would you risk your life like that?”

“Isn't that the purpose of being a scientist? To ask questions and discover the answers to those questions?” Enza was slightly confused, “Don't you risk your life time to time to discover your answers?”

Egon thought for a moment, “Yes, but I wouldn't purposely do it. What if the explosion killed you?”

She smiled, “Then I'm off to study a new world, what an exciting prospect, isn't it?”

“SPENGS YOU CRAZY BITCH!” Petra shouted as she and the others came into the room, “What were you trying to do?”

Enza sighed, “I was in the middle of preforming an experiment before I was interrupted...”

Egon looked back at Enza, “To be honest, Dr Spengler, that's our equipment and you have no right to experiment with them...”

“To be honest, Dr Spengler, right now we have legal custody of that equipment and we need to make sure that it's safe while it stays in our station. As you four are...” She crossed her arms and gave him a commanding gaze. 

“OH SNAP!” Petra jumped in glee and grabbed a hold of Rayshida in her excitement, “We're going to see two Spenglers go at it! I dreamed about this!”

“Are you going to take that Egon?” Peter called out to him, Egon didn't acknowledged him. 

“If you were that curious about our equipment then why not ask the ones that built it?” Egon asked her.

“Where's the fun in that?” She replied, “Isn't part of the fun when preforming experiments is to discover?”

“Yes of course it is, but we still have to be cautious...”

She leaned closer to him and looked up into his eyes, Egon could feel the hairs on his neck raise up and a sweet chill crawled down his spine as she stared at him intently with her blue dragon eyes, “As Petra would say, if you're not living on the edge, then you're taking up too much space. The best discoveries are founded by chance and you can only do that by taking risks...”

“BOOM!” Petra shouted, “Spengs one, Spengler zero!”

Peter turned to her, “This isn't a competition, Vamperella.”

She laughed, “Of course not, because he'll loose every time. Our Spengs has the highest IQ in the world!”

Rayshida whistled loudly, “Come on guys, there is no reason for us to up each other. We're all Ghostbusters, we should be acting like family instead of this.”

Petra laughed, “You were an only child Ray, Enza and I were raised with three older brothers. This is EXACTLY how families function...”

“You are correct, Rayshida.” Enza said as she began to remove the pack and place it on the table before she turned to Egon, “My apologies, Dr Spengler. You are also correct, I should have brought you in and consulted you before I began. It would have been the wise and intelligent thing to do. However, in my defense, I was too excited when I saw them and threw caution to the wind. Usually I am more responsible than that.”

Egon looked at her curiously, “Why where you excited when you saw them? I'm sure that they're primitive compared to your own...”

He watched as her eyes suddenly light up, “Because they work without magic! It's incredible and unimaginable that you were able to create the right particle stream with just your resources that work on the highly complex phantom plasma fields...”

“You're impressed?” Egon felt his pride begin to fill him in a warm sensation, “I thought you would be laughing at their simplicity compared to yours.”

“But that's it! It's the simplicity of your design that enticed me to try your pack out. To us, it technically shouldn't work, but it does!” She smiled at him tenderly, “Also, I would never laugh at someone's inventions or ideas. That's terribly rude and uncalled for. I'm a firm believe that we should all encourage each other to shine our very best.”

Egon didn't understand the warmth that was growing from his heart, he began to become lost in her eyes again. Why was he becoming infatuate with her? Was it because she was so much like him but yet so different? Was it a natural occurrence with meeting his doppelganger? He would have to ask the guys later if they felt the same way about theirs. 

“Dr Spengler...” They heard a male's voice over the intercom breaking the hold her eyes had on him.

She turned away from him and pressed the intercom on the wall, “Spengler here, go a head Roger...”

“The scanner is set up for your tests with the humans, Ma'am.”

“Thank you Roger, we will be right there.” She replied, she turned to the others, “Well, let's see where you gentleman come from.”

***********

“Is this thing safe? I feel like it's going to fry my brains.” said Peter as he stared at the machine that he was supposed to sit in for testing.

He laid on the molded seat, it was long enough to support his entire body. The chair was attached to a brace that came up a few feet above the chair with what looked like a large lens.

“It won't hurt you, you big baby.” Winston responded, “I went first to show you that there wasn't anything to it.”

“You don't feel anything when it puts that beam on you Peter, not even a bit of warmth.” Added Ray.

“This scanner is the most advance technology and will not cause any harm to your person. I assure you.” Roger responded as he adjusted the seat, bringing it up a little higher towards the lens, “Now Dr Venkman, just relax and it will be over in a minute.” He turned to Enza, who was sitting at one of the main computers typing away madly, “Ready for number three, Doctor?”

“Yes Roger, please begin...”

“OK, I have the DNA extractors!” Rayshida said as she came out of one of the store rooms and started handing them to all four men, making sure that they had several.

Egon looked at his, they resembled giant sized cotton swabs, “You'll require this much DNA?”

“Spengs always has to have a lot on hand just in case some gets contaminated.” Petra replied as she was swirling around in an office chair, obviously bored.

“I like to be thorough with my tests.” Enza said, never taking her eyes off the computer screen, “I would like to take every opportunity to study your species for our records so we finally have a complete compendium of your kind with correct and factual information...” 

“And another Nobel Prize for us!” Petra shrieked, “Which means more free advertisement and fame and MONEY! I love you Spengs...”

Enza sighed, “Petra, please do me the honor and give your mouth a rest while you're in here as we conduct these tests.”

“Fine, mom.” She looked around, “But I'm so bored... “

Rayshida turned to her as she was grabbing more files from one of the cabinets, “Why don't you order us dinner from Musharraf's place and Zee can bring it to us when she comes in. It'll be quicker than to go into the kitchen and make something ourselves...” She handed Petra a pad of paper and a pen, “Here, I want a double order of crazy fries and their cyclops burger, hold the spores.”

Egon's eyes lit up, “You eat spores, as in fungal spores?”

“It's a spice they add, it's really popular here in New York. I love it myself but Ray's allergic to it.” Petra said as she was writing it down, “Why am I doing this? Jasper should be here doing this...”

“NO!” Enza snapped, “I don't want him in here while I'm working. I enjoy a peaceful environment to work in without distractions.”

Peter grinned, “What's a matter? Can't handle being around the ex?”

All three ladies turned to him confused.

Egon slapped him behind the head, “You really had to?”

Petra roared out a laugh, “It never went anywhere near that. As soon as I hired him and she noticed him hanging a little too much around her, Spengs slapped that policy that we're not allowed to date the subordinates so fast and crushed him. She broke my heart and killed my fun...”

Peter chuckled, “Poor guy, at least our Janine got our Egon a few times...”

Egon was shocked with what Peter had said, “Peter!”

Enza turned to Egon with a shocked look on her face, “You experienced coitus with your employee on more than one occasion?”

“We were in a relationship...” Egon tried to explain unwillingly, “We...we did date a few times...”

“Why would you do something so foolish?” Enza couldn't grasp his reasoning, “There are much more negative consequences than positive, and let's not forget the possibility of lawsuits and child support if she becomes pregnant and you could have lost your business in just child support. And if it doesn't work out? There's the awkwardness that follows and the potential to loose an excellent employee. Also the possibility of realizing that you are definitely in the WRONG relationship and now you're stuck with them or wasted your life unhappy! Why take that risk?”

Before Egon or Peter could answer, Petra did, “Easy, convenience.”

“It was not!” Egon tried to defend himself, but the mischievous and confident look in Petra's red eyes told him it was useless.

“Sure it was.” She gave him a sly smirk, “You spend all your time either in your lab, collecting samples wherever and going out on calls. You don't have time to go out and find a good match for yourself. So when the opportunity came throwing herself at ya, you took it because it was faster and easier for you. You didn't have to put yourself out at all, no effort and no risk. And from what I can see in your face, you tried it a couple of times and it burned out so fast and furious, hotter than the Titanic when it crashed. I have a PhD in Psychiatry and Sociology, among others, I didn't need to use my emphatic abilities to know why.” She winked at him, “Oh don't give that sour look, it's good for you to confront your dark truths, it makes you grow as a person...”

Egon sat in his seat, his face red from the embarrassment that Petra had caused with her accurate assessment. It was easy for him to be with Janine, at lest for the few good times. But it was difficult to maintain a relationship with her, she needed things that he couldn't giver her. He just couldn't be more emotional available for her in the way she needed him to be. As he thought about it, it has always been the women that pursued him, and they never lasted. They sometimes accused him of being too cold, robotic, inhuman. 

Peter was furious with with Petra, even he wasn't that low. He knew it was also his fault that this all started, but he didn't ever think it would go this far so fast. It was just in jest. Before he could respond and defend his best friend, Enza had stood up with lightning speed sending her chair so hard across the wall that it slammed into the wall with an ear crushing bang and leaving a dark mark on the gray wall.

“PETRA! ENOUGH!” Enza roared at her, her arms crossed and her face scowled in anger, the desks and objects on top shook when her true voice boomed. 

Her dragon voice carried throughout the laboratory, even making poor gentle Roger jump, causing him to stamper in his place in fright. The other scientists stopped what they were doing to see what had their lead scientist in an up roar.

Petra stood up, guilt ran over her, “OK, I'm sorry, I went too far...”

“While you are in MY lab, you WILL conduct yourself properly. Is that clear?”

“Yes, I get it, I know. My big mouth did it again...” She turned to Egon, “I am honestly sorry, Spengler. I got carried away...”

“It's fine.” Egon said in a low tone.

“How about I take you guys to the recreation levels and you guys can check out what we have. We've got a small theater, a tennis court, a basket ball court, a big swimming pool with a hot tub, an arcade with a bunch of retro games, and the Holodeck is there. We even have one floor that's JUST a library with books from all over the world and throughout the ages, it's a pretty popular place too to hang out. I think you guys will enjoy it while you're here...” Rayshida said to try to cut the tension in the air, “It'll keep you guys from going crazy with cabin fever.”

“That sounds like a fantastic idea, Dr Stantz.” Winston said, “Do you guys have a gym too?”

“Sure do, fully loaded.”

Enza walked over to her chair and brought it back to her computer, “Well then, let's get Dr Spengler scanned and you five can then go enjoy yourselves.” Her tone still sounded perturbed.

Petra kept herself quiet and her eyes on Enza, she had said a lot worse before and Enza had never snapped at her, let alone in her dragon voice. It's only been happening lately, a few days ago she heard from one of the maintenance guys that Enza had snapped on him for something trivial, something she wouldn't have done before... the only time she would get aggressive was when she came into heat... and she wasn't due for at least another ten years or so. 

“Petra...” She hear Enza call her calmly.

“Yeah, babe?”

“Please order our guests some pizzas, I'm sure they'll enjoy Frank's...”

Petra smiled, “Sure thing Spengs.”

She pulled out her phone and began going through her contact list for the number of the pizzeria, there was something going on with her best friend and she had a feeling that the humans had something to do with it. Maybe? Whatever it was, she was going to find out. 

*************************

“Egon, you have no idea how sorry I am...” Peter said for the hundredth time as the guys were trying to relax in the main lounge of the recreational area. 

It was late in the evening, Peter and Winston were having a match at a ping pong table near by the couches as Ray and Egon where reading. Rayshida had given them all special glasses that allowed them to read in any language, so Ray had chosen a book on dragon lore while Egon had chosen their version of Toben's Spirit Guide. 

“It's fine, Peter.” Egon sighed, “To be honest, everything she said was correct.”

“I doubt it, she doesn't know anything about you Big Guy, she just threw it out there...”

“I guess that's just how she is.” Egon flipped another page, “It doesn't matter, she's given me a lot to think about...”

“She's such a bitch...” Peter said as he hit the ball towards Winston, “And so annoying. And what does she know, anyways? Who does she think she is?”

“Peter's right.” Said Winston, “She's probably just guessing...”

Egon turned to them, “Peter, she nailed it to a perfection. Everything she said was true. I only accepted dating Janine because it was easy for me. I love her, but not in the way she wants me to. I just can't seem to get past the friendship and into something more. When we get back to our dimension, she and I are going to have a long talk. She needs to get over her obsession of me and find someone that will treat her the way she deserves. And I know it's not me.”

“How do you feel about that?” Ray asked, “How would you feel about her dating someone else?”

Egon thought for a moment, “I don't know. But I'll deal with it when it happens. I don't want her to waste her life waiting for something that's not going to happen.”

“Hey, there you guys are!” The guys turned to see Wanjay walking towards them with a large plastic container with Rayshida and Petra following behind, “I got something for you guys.”

The guys all walked towards one of the tables as she placed the container down and lifted the lid, “My fiance is a great chef and though you guys deserve a little treat, so he made a few different kinds of his famous cookies for you guys. As a welcome to New York gift...I think... he's a little softy.”

The guys looked at the cookies and smelled that all to familiar smell of fresh baked sweets, everyone except Peter took a cookie and began eating. All three made comments on how good they were.

Rayshida turned to Peter, “You don't want to try them?”

“What are they made from?” He asked.

Rayshida looked at him strangely, “Butter, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, other stuff...”

“It's the other stuff that I have an issue with.”

“Yeah well, you ain't got any other choice, my friend.” Replied Wanjay, “You're stuck eating our food, it's not like it's going to make you grow wings or a horn on your head. It's just food.”

“Try one Peter, they're really good.” Said Ray.

Peter hesitantly took one and bit slowly into it, after a few chews he swallowed and smiled, “OK, you're right Ray. They're really good.”

“Great!” Rayshida grinned, “And we got something else we want to talk to you guys about.”

“Oh?” Peter said, “Like what?”

“How would you guys like to join us on a team building exercise we're doing the day after tomorrow with some of our agents. It's be in the afternoon.” Petra asked.

The guys looked at each other for a few moments before agreeing, they had nothing else better to do.

“What kind of exercises are we going to do?” Asked Winston.

“You guys will LOVE this!” Petra grinned, “We use the big Holodeck at the warehouse for it. You see, we have it set up to use a lot of pop culture and history to create exciting and fun scenarios that the teams have to defeat. We are usually two or three teams against a main foe or we are all foes, depending on the program. But...”

“But there's one that we can't seem to beat at all, not even once and we've been through the simulation at least thirty times. And we can't just seem to do it.” Said Rayshida.

“So what's the game?” Peter asked.

“Have you guys seen or heard of a movie series called Pirates of the Bahamas?” Wanjay asked them.

The guys shook their heads.

“OK... “ Rayshida began, “Basically it's an open sea pirate simulation where we get into two teams and beat each other and then to the big boss.”

“With boats...” Asked Egon in an annoyed tone.

“It's more than that!” Replied Petra, “We have to use the equipment and ships at the time and blow shit up, mainly Ray in her Santa Maria...”

Rayshida scoffed at her, “I remember blowing your Black Pearl out of the water at least a few times there, Petra. I wouldn't boast too much. I have five times the amount of cannons than you do and plus, I can hold four times the amount of supply with her, not including the weight of all those canons. What can you fit on your boat? A loaf of bread? Oh yeah, Bob from accounting! He's small enough to fit on your little dingy.”

“Hey, don't laugh at her, she'll run circles around you and punch a hole in your haul again, Kitten. Let's see you shoot your precious canons under a few miles of sea water. I remember the look on your face when you fell into the water a few times there...” Chuckled Petra.

'So, are we going to be on an actual pirate ship?” Peter was starting to get interest as well as Ray.

“Well, only if you get picked, the computer picks the teams randomly.” Wanjay said, "you either go on the Santa Maria, A British war ship or you get to be a pirate on the Black Pearl."

“There's a lot to this,” Wanjay handed Egon a tablet, he immediately began looking over the information on it, “The key to defeating the boss is an answer to an equation that Enza created but none of us can break it, not even Holztman and she's almost as smart as Enza.”

“She's a lot on the crazy side too, girl's nuts.” Petra threw in.

“So who's the big boss you have to beat?” Asked Winston.

All three ladies gave them a worried look, “Enza with a computer generated crew under her full control.” replied Wanjay.

Egon looked up at them in surprise, “She'll join you for that? She seems incredibly serious for such...”

“Enza loves playing the bad guy and she's excellent at it. She knows how to challenge us all the time. But this time she's got us stumped. Every time we beat each other, she just comes up and smashed the survivors with her crew and boat, The Flying Dutchman...”

Peter began to laugh, “Oh, I get it now...”

Petra stared at him, “What?”

He grinned, “You're inviting us on your exercise so that our Spengler can beat your Spengler. Because that would be your only chance to beat her, right?”

The girls looked nervously at each other for a moment.

“I told you that he'd figure it out.” Petra said, “Can't con a Venkman, you know.”

“Alright fine!” Said Rayshida, “We want to beat her at this game! And I want to beat her bad! It's twenty-nine to zero! I just want to beat her for once! Is that too much to ask?”

“Ditto.” Added Petra.

Egon was still looking through the tablet, “All the information about the program and the movie is in here?”

“Everything.” Replied Petra, even every recording of every simulation we ran from both angles except from the Flying Dutchman.”

Egon thought for a moment, “Alright, we'd like to help you. However...”

Petra felt a pang when she heard that last word, “Oh gods, we may not like what's coming next...”

“What would be my motivation for assisting you?” Egon gave them a sinister grin of his own.

“Egon, you sly dog!” Peter laughed, “You've been paying attention.”

Petra sighed, “Extortion, from the nerd. Fine. What do you want?”

“The more appropriate question would be, how badly do you want to defeat Enza? How bad do you want that win?” Egon leaned back into the couch with his fingers pressed together and a mischievous smirk on his face.

“Ray, he's scaring me. Make him stop...” Petra whispered in a soft voice.

“How many souls do you want?” Wanjay asked.

“Egon, demand that they take us out somewhere really fun and exciting! Like a club or something!” Asked Peter.

“I have something better than that in mind.” Egon turned to Petra, “I want access to the lab...”

All three girls almost choked on the air they were breathing.

“You have a better chance getting real souls.” Said Petra.

“I've already solved the equation.” Egon added to twist their metaphoric arms, that unnerving grin still on his face.

“You did?” Petra was blown away at the speed, even the other two girls were impressed.

Rayshida sighed and turned to Petra, “What are the chances of you getting Enza to agree to let him in her lab?”

Petra thought for a moment, “It'll be a challenge, but I think I can... if I get mom involved. Mom's her weakness, Enza would do anything for her.”

“Hey, what about us?” Peter voice, “What do we get for helping?”

“OK, one reasonable demand each, we've already got an impossible one on the table.” Said Wanjay.

“We want to get out of this prison and do something, mind you that this one is much better than the last cage we were in.” Said Peter, “You guys have a great place here, but we've been kept for over four or five days now and we want to get out and just do something. Personal, I would LOVE to go on a call and bust some ghosts...”

“We want to throw in our own weight, we don't want to be idle.” Said Winston.

The girls looked at each other, Petra turned back at the guys, “Let me see what I can do, I'll have to go over the laws and policies with Enza and see what we can get away with, OK? Can't give you any guaranties but we'll do our best to get you guys busy with something, OK? Does that sound fair?”

“Deal.” Agreed the guys.

“Alright then!” Petra smiled, “Well, we gotta go back to the garage and do the crap us bosses are supposed to do, but we'll talk to you guys more about it later, cool? Enjoy those cookies. Why do I feel like I've just sold my first born...”

The guys nodded, their excitement growing with the prospect of finally getting to see the full extent of their operation.

“One more thing...” Egon added, “...how close is Dr Spengler at finding our dimension? It's rather urgent that we connect with out people.”

Petra looked at her watch, “Well, she's still in the lab right now running the system to find your dimension, I'll ask her when she comes down when we get a call, OK?”

Egon thought for a moment, “She's staying up as well? Doesn't she sleep?”

“Oh no, dragons don't sleep like the rest of us.” Answered Petra, “Dragon do sleep a lot when their super young, but they grow out of it when they reach adolescence, around fifty or sixty or so years. Then they usually go two, two and a half hundred years before they have to sleep for like maybe a year or two? Or if they're beaten up pretty bad, they'll sleep to reserve all their energy for regenerating the wounds, or a female will sleep while hatching her eggs until they hatch. Other than that, dragons don't sleep.”

“That would explain why she was ready to give up her room.” Said Winston.

“Are there other dragons around?” Ray asked excitably.

Rayshida shook her head, “No, Enza's the only dragon that doesn't live on the dragon islands...”

“But why...”

“Hey.” Petra grabbed their attentions, “There's a book we have in the history section, it's call the Dragon Wars, it'll explain what we don't really have time for. Trust me, it's a good book.”

And with that, the ladies left the men to their own devises. Egon couldn't shake the feeling that whatever information was in that book, the girls didn't like to talk about by the tone of Petra's voice. It was the first time she used a serious tone since they've been there. He made a mental note to go find that book.

“So Egon,” Peter turned to him, “What's the secret to defeating the big bad dragon?”

Egon picked up the pad and looked over the long formula, “The enemy of my enemy... is my friend.”

*********************************

Enza kept staring at the computer screen, the video of the bight blue brain scan kept repeating over and over as her eyes became fixed at it. Her eyes told her one thing, but her brilliant mind kept telling her that it was impossible. She had her elbows resting on the desk and her hands folded together, her chin rested on her thumbs, she couldn't look away form watching the neurons dance and spike, creating flashing of lighting over the brain. Again, impossible kept going over and over her mind. 

She felt a hand touch her shoulder, making her jump and let out a small cry of surprise, Roger looked down as her with concern.

“Enza, are you all right?” He asked, “I've called you several times and you seemed to be very far away. I was just about to leave and I wanted to know if you needed anything before I left?”

She let out a frustrated breath from her chest, “To be honest Roger, I haven't been feeling myself in the last few days...”

“I've noticed, but I felt it would be an infringement on your privacy if I asked.”

“I may just becoming down with something...” She turned back to the screen, “Roger, can you take a look at this before you leave? I'd like a second opinion.”

Roger smiled, “Of course.”

He leaned closer to the screen, “Hmm.. extremely high levels of beltan neurons, delphoids... are those tribentals?”

Enza nodded, "Yes..."

“I've never seen tribentals so low on a dragon before...”

“The scan isn't from a dragon.”

Roger turned to her in surprise, “But only dragons have tribental neurons...”

“I'm well aware of that...”

“Then, who's scan is this?”

“Roger, I would like you to keep this extremely confidential, alright?”

“Of course Enza, you know you can trust me.”

“I know, that's why I'm asking for your assistance in this.”

“Of course, will you now tell me what's going on?”

“This scan... is from the human Spengler...”

“That's impossible...” Roger let out a gasp, “Humans are non magical creatures, there is no possible way for him to have tribental neurons. And besides, dragons can't mate with humans, your species can't create the bond with them. And if I'm not mistaken, it's the bond that allows you to breed, correct?”

“Correct,” She looked closer at the scan, “However, it seems that somewhere down Dr Spengler's line, one of his ancestors did mate with a dragon, if this is correct and not a glitch of the machine or programming... perhaps their dragons work differently than we do?”

“May I advise you to take a few more scans? On the down low of course...”

“Of course, but in the mean time, I'm going to send most of his DNA samples as well as the other humans to our bio-lab back in Ohio. They have the most complete collection of DNA on our world plus many more inter-dimensional samples. I'm hoping that they can match something and tell us a bit more. I would love to find out more about this... “

Enza stared back at the picture, she was hoping what she was feeling was an illness and not what she was dreading. He stirred something inside of her when she first looked at him through the bars, there was something that pulled her towards him. She had thought it was just her curiosity, but now it seemed hat there was more than just excitement. The way his eyes stared at her while he was angry in the testing room. His eyes that radiated the aura of dominance for a brief moment, it sent tingles in places she had never felt before. 

She shook her head away from those primal thought, “I'll invite Dr Spengler back in tomorrow and say...”

“You can say that I accidentally deleted his scan...”

“I despise being so deceitful, but I doubt that he has any knowledge of this. It may go incredibly far up his bloodline.” She turned to Roger, “Thank you for proving to me that I wasn't loosing my mind, you should head home. Say hello to Nancy and the foals for me.”

“Will do. I'll see you tomorrow, I'll bring coffee this time...” He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze before leaving the lab.

Enza closed the program down and rubbed her temples, if it was what she was dreading, then she's better hurry up and get these humans back to their world as soon as possible. She would definitely call the prosecutor in the morning and see if they could release the humans back to their world with just a written testimony. They've done it before with citizens, why not with them? Her freedom depended on getting them back home. 

To be continued...


	3. chapter 3

Chapter 3

The sun was bright as the great war ship sailed across the calm open blue ocean, deck hands scurried about the edges of the deck carefully avoiding the center. Up on the wheel deck, Rayshida dressed in the age appropriate uniform kept the ship straight. She looked over to Wanjay, who was dressed the same, was searching the empty horizon for that familiar black spot.

“Anything yet Captain?” Rayshida asked.

“Nothing that I can see, Ray. I hope this plan works...”

“Of course it'll work.” She maliciously grinned, “I trust Egon's plan. Enza won't know what hit her...”

“It was a miracle that she was already inside the Holodeck setting it up when we showed up with the guys. Great job on making the computer think they were someone else.”

“Thanks. The plan would have been useless if she knew they were here.” Rayshida looked around the open sea, “I love this simulation!”

“There she is!” Wanjay shouted, “The Black Pearl's headed our way, about time...”

“Better let Egon and Peter know...”

Wanjay collapsed her spy glass and hopped down to the main deck, she leaned into the door to the floor below.

“Egon, you guys ready?” She shouted below.

“Yes.” he shouted back as he joined her at the stairs, “Peter's ready and the floor's been weakened. As long as Ray and Winston do their part with Petra, you'll get your win.”

“I better get something great out of this!” They heard Peter complain from farther in, “This stuff stinks! I thought they were holograms or something...”

Wanjay laughed, “They are Peter, but they all have the right smells and feel to make the experience as real as possible. The Holodeck is a really sophisticated piece of machinery...”

“Thank you Captain, I'm pretty proud of her myself.” Rayshida beamed with pride.

“Come on, Peter, let me see you. I bet Egon a great job on your costume with what he had available.” Wanja took a few steps down to see Egon's masterpiece.

“I feel like I should be signing with a bunch of crustaceans under the sea with a pretty mermaid...” Peter said as he walked slowly towards them.

Wanjay's eye's lit up as she glanced at the costume, Egon had indeed did an amazing job making Peter look like one of the crew of the Flying Dutchman. Half of his face was covered with small barnacles, seaweed covered his head and tattered old cloths with shells and star fishes covered the rest. 

“Egon, he's fantastic!” She smiled, he looked at him in amazement, “You're fantastic! If I didn't know any better I would have mistaken him for one of Enza's crew. Are you sure they won't attack him when he tries to board their ship?”

Egon adjusted his glasses, “If my theory is correct, I hypothesize that Dr Spengler had programmed the simulation to be as realistic as possible which would include the possibility of being able to fool the crew, regardless of they being computer generated...”

“Gods, he sounds just like Enza!” They heard from above from Rayshida, “Better get ready for part one of the plan, the Black Pearl is getting closer by the minute...”

“Alright, this is going to be fun..” Wanjay turned around and went back to her place on the steering deck. She turned to her crew, “ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS! YOU ARE ALL AWARE OF THE PLAN! LET'S FINALLY KICK DR SPENGLER'S SCALY BLUE ASS!”

The crew cheered as they ran to their station, ready for the upcoming simulated battle.

Egon turned to Peter and smiled, “You know what to do, right Peter?”

“Yea, yeah, I know what I'm doing. I wait until there's chaos and for Vamperella and then make a break for the ghost ship. I get into the Captain's cabin and find the heart in a small chest and stab it. It's easy, I got this...”

“Now, Petra's going to make sure you get to the cabin without interference. We won't have much time after we deploy the plan that Enza will know what's going on.” Egon said as he handed Peter a small dagger, “Just stab it...”

“Just stab it, you make it sound so fun...” Peter replied.

“You'll be fine. Just think of it as just another day at home... just one a boat, with mythical creatures, in a computer generated simulation...” Egon looked around, “I can't wait to explore this technology.

“I got this Big Guy, this will definitely impress that dragon of theirs.” Peter answered feeling excited.

~*~

Petra grinned as she stared at the Santa Marie in her spy glass, “THAR SHE BLOWS!” She shouted in true Pirate dialog, “Mr Gibbison! FULL SPEED AHEAD!”

“AYA CAPTAIN!” The wolf face being shouted back as he kept the ship straight.

She was dressed in silks of red, white and black, with giant hop earrings and scarves of multiple colors. He wore a huge wide brimmed had with more scarves that danced in the wind behind her. She looked exactly what a great Pirate Captain should look like, she loved this simulation the best. 

She grabbed a line and swung down by the front of the ship where Winston and Ray were putting the final touches on the new battering ram on the bow of the ship. Everyone there were dressed as scrounge laced pirates to add to the atmosphere. 

“Mr Ray, Mr Winston! Are ye ready to plunge the Dutchman back to Davy Jones' locker?” She asked as Ray looked at her with a giant grin.

Winston laughed, “Yeah, she's all ready. You guys really get into this don't ya?”

“Aye me dark skinned prince, We be PIRATES, don't ya know?” She pulled out her cutlass and pointed towards the Santa Marie, “Arr, Captain Spengs will be walking the plank this day!”

She turned to her men, still shouting commands in character as they rushed about at their duties. The men (and women) were running around loading cannons and pilling more canon balls around each of them. All were feeling the excitement of the possibility of finally beating this game.

“Hey Captain!” Winston called out to Petra, “Remember that Egon said to only fill the cannons with half the gun powder and aim them right so they land on the deck of the Santa Marie...”

“Aye!” She shouted back as she took her place beside the wheel, “Mr Gibbison, broadside the bitch!” She turned to the front of the boat, “Mr Ray! Mr Winston! Get far below you scally wags! Ye not be needed seen!”

The two ran below and took their station with others beside the canons, they had to be exact with their shots or they could cripple the Santa Marie and blow the plan sky high. The smaller black ship glided in its turn, it's canons pointed upwards to minimize the impact. As both ships came a few hundred yards from each other, The Santa Maria's canons muzzles crept out of the port holes awaiting the word to fire.

“Closer Mr Gibbison!” Petra shouted, she waited until the pirate ship was close enough, “FIRE!”

Half of their canons fired towards the great war ship, the crew of the Santa Maria watched hesitantly with prays under their breaths as they watched the canons come down onto the deck. With multiple loud thuds, the canons landed and bounced around the deck. The floor boards creaked and wined against the impact, but did not break. As some of the crew began to collect the balls, Wanjay waved a red flag about.

“STAGE ONE FIRE!” She shouted, only a few canons fired back towards the black shit but didn't connect with her but fell into the water around her. She turned to her partner, “You still think that this will get her attention?”

Rayshida looked around the horizon as she was steering the boat for another 'attack', “She better hear the noise soon, I'm not sure the deck can hold more than two more shots like that. Maybe three if the guys didn't weaken them too much.”

Egon popped up from below, “How fast does Enza find you? Because I don't think that the deck can take more than a few more hits like that.”

“Called it! Hopefully she'll be here soon, she's never far from the sound of battle...” Replied Rayshida as more balls landed on the creaking deck and into the water.

Just as they were about to turn around for the third attack, the waters closest to the Santa Maria exploded around as the massive undead ship breached the surface. 

“RETREAT!” Petra yelled as she saw the Dutchman's front land on the water, creating massive waves as it sailed straight for the war ship, “Awesome! She's going after the more dangerous ship first. Damn Spengler knows Spengs' tactics...” She grinned as the ghost ship moved closer to the war ship.

Wanjay and Rayshida stared at the ship and spotted her Captain, Enza was in her seaman form for this simulation. Her skin was covered in olive green scales, her outfit looked more like an old Danish Captain's colors, faded from the decay of her character. Her usual silver hair was just strands of seaweed that flowed in the wind. She was standing on the bridge, her cutlass in her hands and a very serious look on her face. The only thing that had not changed was her blue dragon eyes. Her crew of sea-lost souls gathered about the edge of the ship, waiting to get close enough to board the vessel. Each ship had a prize, The Dutchman had a heart, the Santa Maria had a piece of parchment and the Black Pearl had an actual large black pearl for hers. 

Just as the war ship was trying to steer away, it collided with the hollowed and rotten side of the ghost ship.

“SLAUGHTER THEM ALL!” Enza shouted as she pointed her sword towards the crew of the Santa Maria.

“Slaughter them all? That's new...” Rayshida mentioned to Wanjay, “You think she knows..?”

“It's Enza, who knows?” Wanjay replied as she pulled out her cutlass and pistol, “Let's see who's the smarter Spengler, shall we?”

The undead crew grab a hold of the lines and began to swing over to the other boat with others swarming over the sides. Just as the first group landed on the deck, the weakened floor boards couldn't take the strain, half of the Dutchman's crew fell through the broken boards two flights down until they landed on top of multiple wooden spikes, pinning most of them to the floor.

Enza stared at the hole that took the brunt of her force, “SINK THEM!” She commanded, the look on her face was not of one having fun. In fact, she actually looked unusually angry at the moment.

“ATTACK!” Wanjay shouted as her crew drew their weapons and began to board the Dutchman.

“FIRE ALL THE CANONS!” Rayshida called out, every canon aboard the Santa Maria fired their steel balls through the haul of the ship, millions of wooden shards shattered about the computer generated crew below the Dutchman's decks.

Enza turned to the rest of the crew, “DIVE!”

Just as one of her crew reached the wheel, the entire ship lunged sideways with such a force that the sound of rotten lumber breaking drowned the fight. Enza was almost knocked over in the force of the impact, she looked over at the other side and saw the Black Pearl had pinned itself against her ship.

“TRY TO DIVE NOW WITH A GIANT BALLON ATTACHED TO YOUR HAUL! The Pirate Queen shouted at the dragon, “ATTACK!” Petra commanded as her crew boarded the haunted ship, giving aid to the crew of the Santa Maria.

As both crew took on the undead hoard, Petra raced though the three ships and landed on the war ship.

Egon and Peter waited in the back of the ship until they heard the rushing of foot steps headed towards them, “Spengler! Petey!”

Egon turned to Peter, 'That's your cue...”

Petra reached them and took one good look at Peter, “Wow, that's awesome..” She quickly grabbed him, “...let's go boy.”

“Good luck Peter!” Egon shouted as they ran up to the deck.

It was difficult getting to the dead ship, Petra made sure that Peter was beside her as she fought their way towards the Captain's cabin. The spirited crew attacked Petra here and there as she and Peter danced around the battle, it seemed that they ignored Peter as Egon had predicted. Just as she threw Peter into the gallows, she turned around quickly enough to block Enza's cutlass with hers.

“Hey Spengs!” Petra said as she threw her friend away and began her own attack, “You feeling ok lately?”

The two began their sword play, “I may be coming down with a Draconian flu of sorts...”

They raced towards the middle of the ship, Enza missing Petra and slicing against the mast, “Did you get Roger to take some tests or something?”

Enza ducked as Petra swung her sword above her head, “Not at the moment, preoccupied with more urgent issues...”

“Yeah well, you better keep on top of your health there, babe...” Petra back flipped away from Enza's swinging sword, “...sometimes that shit crawls up on ya...”

“I am fully aware of the...”

“GAME OVER!” The female computer like voice boomed over everyone as the ghost ship began to disintegrate into pixels.

Enza turned her head in shock at Petra, who had nothing but a giant grin ear to ear on her face, “Surprise, babe!”

“We did it! In your face Spengs!” Enza and Petra turned towards the back of the disappearing boat where Peter stood with a plush cartoon heart with a dagger run through it in his hand, “We came! We saw! We plundered your ass!”

Before Enza could say a word, the boat completely disappeared from under them, leaving them all to fall straight into the sea water below. As everyone surfaced, the crews began to climb up onto one of the two ships. Enza and Petra stared at each other for a few moments until Petra playfully sprayed water at her friend.

“How did we do Spengs?” Petra ask before swimming towards the rope ladder of the Santa Maria.

“I am suspecting that you cheated.” She replied as she grab a hold of the ladder, She looked over to the Black Pearl and spotted Ray and Winston waving at them.

“It's only cheating if you get caught!” She heard Peter behind her.

As Enza lifted herself over the rails, she looked up and saw Egon standing there with everyone congratulating him. He turned and smiled softly at her, but stopped when he saw the look on her face. She didn't look amused.

Rayshida and Wanjay ran up to her and grinned enthusiastically, “This counts right?” Asked Rayshida, hopeful that it did.

“This was a damn good plan!” Voiced Peter, “Egon's out done himself.”

“Dr Spengler planned this?” Enza asked as she crossed her arms, her face still hard with a stern gaze.

“I did.” Egon replied, “As soon as I saw the equation, I knew it wasn't a real equation but a message hidden in the equation itself. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. This was a simulation to encourage the two teams to work together who otherwise wouldn't against a common enemy.”

“No wonder no one figured it out.” Voiced Wanjay, “We all thought it was an actual problem we had to solve.”

“Come on Spengs,” Petra wrapped an arm around Enza, “we did good. Admit it.”

She turned to her sister, “How were you able to get them in here without the system alerting me?”

“That would be me.” Rayshida grinned, “I did it, I hacked the program.”

Enza thought for a moment before admitting it to herself first, “It was a very successful plan. I'm impressed with how resourceful you all were.”

Both crews cheered and began to chant Egon's name as four of the men picked him up on their shoulders. As the others began to clap in rhythm with the chanting, an alert came on.

“Dr Spengler.” Roger's voice came thought the intercom.

“Spengler here, go a head Roger.” She answered.

“Doctor, I believe you should come to the lab immediately. All eight of you please.”

Enza heard the urgency in his voice, “Is something a matter Roger?”

“Well, the system did located the male Ghostbuster's dimension...”

“Is there something wrong?” She asked again as Petra came beside her, curious to what Roger was saying.

“Not with their dimension, you all should come back to the lab and take a look at some of the other dimensions in their sector. Doctor, it looks serious...”

“We'll be right there, Roger. Spengler out.” She turned to Petra, “It can't be good...”

“Well, there goes our team building exercise...” Petra sighed, “And I was just starting to have fun. We better change into our uniforms first.”

~*~

The group almost ran into the lab, Roger's urgent force fueling the Enza's building frustrations as she took lead into the laboratory. Roger had a tablet in hand while he stood in front of a large hologram of a bight green sphere with a smaller red one inside. 

“Oh good, that was quick Enza.” Roger began, “Forgive me for intruding on your training simulation but I didn't like the look of what I saw.”

“What is that?” Peter asked as they congregated around the hologram.

“Is this the multiverse?” Egon asked.

“Right on the money.” Answered Rayshida, “Enza was able to get a complete copy of the systems and programs that the Atlantian Elves use to monitor the multiverse when she interned with them after college...”

Egon turned to the tigress, “You have a complete record of all the dimensions..?”

“...as new ones form too!” Rayshida smiled proudly, “The sphere is actually a grid and keeps expanding as new dimensions get created...”

“How does that happen?” Asked Peter, “I bet it sounds complicated...”

“I'll explain it as easiest as I can,” The tigress took a deep breath, “...the green sphere is the Prime Material Plane, that's all of our worlds, inside the sphere in red, is the outer dimensions. We didn't make the names up, the Atlantians have been been using dimensional travel since the beginning of our world. Those dimensions are pretty much the nasty ones, like Hell, the Abyss, the Underworld, those kind of nastiest. If you look deeper into the sphere, you'll see something purplish in the middle, constantly moving, that's the center of the Multiverse, what we call chaos magic or the cosmic forces, or Heaven, depending on who you talk to. That's the power that keeps this all going.”

Egon and Ray were enthralled with the constant moving hologram, “Fascinating, this explains so much...” Egon turned to Rayshida, “How exactly does the magic and the planes work together? This is beyond anything we're hypothesized or seen on our world...”

“Think of every dimension as a computer and the Astral grid is the network they're all attached to. Each computer has their own operating system running in the back ground. So, say if someone trained in the arcane arts or a god or whatever magic inclined being wanted to raise the sun during the night, they would impute a command into the computer, which is what a spell is. It's a key-code to access the base programming and make the computer do what they want. Every world has what we call a Nexus point that anchor's each dimension in their place and connected to the grid through Leigh Lines. Using magic, we can access the Nexus points and travel though them to get to each other dimensions without damaging the barriers...”

Egon was amazed, “Magic simply unlocks the dimensional door. That's the best explanation that I've ever heard or read. That makes so much sense.”

“Rayshida, Dr Spengler, you better come take a look at this...” Enza called from the other side of the hologram with Roger.

The two moved over and examined the portion of a grid Roger had enlarged. They could see a small ball at each spot where the grid connected with itself. Most of the little dimensions where a bright pink color where two of them where almost a deep red with a third on almost at the edge of the image.

“Why are those ones red? Rayshida asked.

“It seems that their barriers has been damaged somehow.” Roger answered.

“Damaged how?” Egon asked, “Which one is our dimension?”

Roger pointed to one that was very close to the other two that were damaged, “This one is yours, Dr Spengler, but the other two here that are close to yours troubles me.”

“As it should, Roger.” Enza said in a frustrated tone, “When it rains, it pours it seems...”

“So, someone is just breaking through the barriers instead of using a magic...” Voiced Rayshida as she examined them, “That's very bad...”

“What exactly would those breaks cause?” Egon was being to worry, their dimension was close to the other two and he had his own suspicions on the effects. 

“It will cause a slow bleeding of the Astral grid into those dimensions,” Enza began, “You could have other dimensions simultaneously existing within each other, spirits and ghost traveling freely between worlds, deities once banned now able to re-enter those worlds, the catastrophic collapse of the entire multiverse. I can name more however I'm sure you get the idea.” 

“That's what I was afraid of...” Egon sighed.

She turned to Roger, “Have you...”

“...tracked down what's causing the breaks?” Roger smiled, “Yes, I think I've the source. I should mention that I did locate one break in our own sector.”

“Lovely...” Enza replied in a sarcastic tone as Roger showed her the other sector.

“Are these breaks related to what the smugglers are up to?” Winston asked.

“No.” Replied Enza, “They're using a magical artifact that we are having difficulties tracking, these are made with some other kind of technology, one deprived of magic hence the breaks.”

“They would have to be using some pretty big power source to break through the barrier...” Ray voiced.

“A containment unit...” Egon added, “There's enough psychokinetic energy generated by the ghosts in one that it could generated that kind of power without the use of magic.”

“I agree with you Egon. That's pretty much what we use here.” Rayshida said, “Our containment unit powers this entire building and the portal, but we also use magic. Enza being our arcane expert herself.”

Petra paid attention to Enza, the sarcastic tone wasn't again her. She could see the build up of stress in the back of those dragon eyes, the constant rubbing the back of her head, the sighs, rubbing her eyes, scratching her head. Enza wasn't doing well. 

“Hey Spengs, how about we take care of one shit pile at a time, ok?” She turned to Egon, “How about we get you guys connected with your people for now?”

Egon nodded, “That would be perfect.” He turned to the grid, “But I would like to continue to study this further...”

Enza turned back to Roger, “Is the portal set up Roger?”

“Yes, Doctor, Fawna and Bergs are waiting for you as we speak.”

Enza turned to the others, “This way please.”

Enza and Roger lead the way as the others, Petra was about to follow until she was grabbed by Wanjay. She and Rayshida waited until the rest had gone through the large double doors at the end before they began to talk.

“What's up?” Petra asked.

“We're worried about Enza.” Said Rayshida with a concerned look on her face.

“She hasn't been acting herself, at all. She's getting short tempered really quick lately.” Added Wanjay, “And we know it isn't her heat.”

“She's fine.” Petra lied, she didn't want them to know she was just as concerned, “She's probably just having an off day. I'll get her a couple of Snickers bars and she'll be back to her old robotic self...”

“Petra, this is serious! She's finally getting too stressed out! I warned you both that this could happen when she started taking on all these extra jobs.” Wanjay crossed her arms, her face serious and stern, “We've been depending on her to wipe our asses for far too long and Ray and I think it's starting to finally getting to her.”

“If Spengs was having problems, she would've told me. She doesn't keep secrets from me. I'm her sister and BFF.” Petra replied.

“You forgot about that dragon's pride she has? She's not going to volunteer weakness to anyone. She may not act anything like the rest of her people, but she's still a real dragon under that Atlantian Elf suit she wears...”

Petra became defensive, “What are you getting at, Zee?”

“We don't want her to have a break down and loose her mind, she's worked really hard on her reputation and that's not easy for a lone dragon.” Ray answered, “Enza's basically running the entire operation. She gets consulting calls from all the other stations across the world, she runs this lab on her own, she deals with the city, which is YOUR JOB, she's doing like ten jobs not including her pet projects! And if Enza goes down, we'll be in a bigger mess with this place. It's going to bite us in the ass in the long run, and it's going to bite hard when we're at our worse. We all love her, we don't want anything bad happen to her.”

Petra rolled her eyes, “You guys are worrying too much, she's just...”

“LADIES!” Enza shouted at them as she stood at the door, a disgruntled look on her face, “What are you three doing clucking around like a flock of hens?”

“We were just picking straws to see who would volunteer to check out the guy's dimension, you know... scout it out to make sure it's the right one.” Petra replied with a straight face, “Ray lost.”

“Well then,” Enza looked towards Rayshida, “let's get you all suited up then, shall we?”

Ray turned to Petra and gave her dagger eyes, “Great! Can't wait to explore another world. Yay!”

~*~

“OUCH! Watch my tail Enza! I'm attached to it!” Rayshida cried as Enza finished adjusting the silver power suit to fit properly.

“Apologies Rayshida, but it seems that...” She looked up at her as she buckled the last of the fasteners on the leg, “... the suit may have...shrunk.”

Petra laughed, “What she's saying is that...”

“I KNOW!” Rayshida snapped back, “Don't say it. I know I need to lay off the pastries...”

“I can simply add to the suit, Ray. No need to stop indulging yourself.” Enza stood up and handed Ray the helmet, “The suit has a translator equipped, so we'll be able to converse with their secretary. Now, it should be relatively safe. But just in case, the suit is set up with a small plasma canon on both arms. They're powerful enough to disrupt any specters under a class five. If things get worse, I'll come rushing in.”

“There's a class five in our firehouse right now,” Peter laughed as the guys waited for the girls to get ready, “He's quite the Slimer...”

“Ha ha.” Ray said sarcastically to him, “Are you trying to get Slimer busted?”

“Maybe.”

Rayshida glared at Peter, “You're joking right?”

“No, we do have a pet ghost named Slimer.” Answered Winston, “He's sort of our mascot...”

Enza couldn't believe her ears, “Why?”

“He's an indispensable asset to studying ghosts in our world,” Replied Egon, “He's the only one that is willing to do any test we've asked of him. He's quite friendly...”

“But eats us almost out of house and home. I swear we just work to feed him....” Added Peter.

Petra blurted out a loud laugh as the other three looked at each other puzzled.

Wanjay turned to them, “You do know that ghost don't need to eat, right?”

“Of course we do, but it's easier to keep him happy and compliant when we feed him.” Answered Egon.

Enza shook her head, “I don't know what to think of that. I would have just placed him in an observation tank and conducted the experiments thus save the food bill.”

“Ok, so watch out for a class five pet ghost named Slimer. Fine...” Rayshida said as she slid the helmet over her head and snapped it into place. 

Rayshida walked over to the portal's platform. The giant archway was large enough to pass vehicles through, the above roof hatch relatively the same size gave the idea that they did bring their flying vehicles through the portal. Giant cables attached to the portal seem to disappeared through the floor, the portal obvious power souce.

Enza sat at the operating console and brought up a large blue screen, “Activating the portal now, Ray.”

As she began to input the commands into the computer, the archway began to glow and the room became alive with energy as the space inside the archway began to turn an opaque glowing white.

“Activate your camera.” Enza said as she brought up another screen.

“Done.” She said as the image of the portal appeared on the big screen.

Egon moved over to where Enza was, “May I join you, Doctor? I'd like to observe and verify that we're in the right dimension.”

“Of course, Doctor.” She replied without looking at him, still focused on imputing the right commands.

Egon brought over a chair and sat beside her, watching intently as her fingers seem to race through the keys faster than he's ever seen, “Ray, how are you feeling?”

“My tail feels like the hairs are being pulled on it, Enza.” She said as she began to enter the portal.

As son as she stepped forward into the new world, the picture of the inside of the firehouse displayed before them.

“It looks just like our old place.” Petra said as she and the others all moved around behind Enza and Egon, “Ah, does it ever bring back semi-fond memories, hun Spengs?”

“The entire building was much too small for our needs, but it was what we could afford at the time.” She replied.

“OH MY GODS ARE YOU GUYS SEEING THIS?” They all heard the excited tigress over the radio, “It's just like our old place! Jasper's old crappy desk! They still have a poll! Why didn't we install one in the new building?”

“Because the speed in which you would have descended with from the top would have broken both your legs and permanently damage your spine.” Replied Enza, “I understand that you're very excited to reminisce in the old days Ray, but you need to find Miss Melnitz and inform her of her men's situation as well as prepare her for the replacement crew.”

“OH MY GODS IT'S ECTO! I MISS OUR ECTO!”

“RAY!” Petra shouted, “Focus!”

Egon turned to Enza, “What happened to your fire station?”

“A city employed imbecile thought that shutting down our containment unit was a good idea after I had informed him that it wasn't, he proved my statement correct.”

“Blew the place right up and a few blocks around it.” Laughed Wanjay.

“Ah, you have a Peck here too?” Peter asked.

“Had,” Petra gave him a sly smirk, “We sued the city's ass after I found out that Enza has it all on the record, which paid for this new place. And Pecker head got demoted. Last I heard he was picking up trash in Central Park. The lawsuit cost the city a lot.”

Peter turned to Egon, “Why didn't we think of that?”

Egon just shrugged his shoulders.

“Hey, can you get a load of this smell back there?” Rayshida said as she was walking up the stairs, “It smells like old socks or over ripened cheese... is that normal?”

“Sure is, that would be Slimer's fault.” Said Peter.

“Any signs of life?” Petra asked.

“Negative.” She answered as she looked into the dark kitchen, “Well, we know that none of us like to do the dishes...”

“Ray, proceed to the next level, if we can't find Miss...” Enza began but was interrupted by the sound of a particle gun warming up.

“Guys...” Rayshida's voice became anxious and low, “I think someone's behind me...”

“GET YER PAWS UP OR I'LL BLOW A HOLE RIGHT THROUGH YA!” The guys heard that familiar annoying voice with the Brooklyn accent.

“Janine!” Peter and Egon both shouted.

“Ray,” Enza leaned over, “Don't move...”

Rayshida raised her hands slowly in the air, “I come in peace...”

“You're going to go out in pieces if you don't tell me where my boys are!”

“YeAh, PeIcEs!” They hear the strange second voice from behind.

“That would be Slimer.” Explained Egon.

Rayshida slowly turned around and saw the angry red headed human female dressed in a brown suit with a bright green ghost hiding behind her, “She's got a particle gun pointed at me and an angry class five, Enza...”

“Perhaps you should introduce yourself.” Enza said as Petra leaned closer.

“Helloooooo nurse!” Petra said as she nudged Egon with her elbow, “I see why you had to tap that little honey, eh? Oh, I should have went in instead, she looks like fun...” 

Egon looked up at her with an agitated glare, she turned to Enza who gave her the same look, “I'll shut up...” She took a few paces back.

Peter leaned closer to her, “So, you like both sides, hun?”

She leaned closer to him and fluttered her eyes, “I'm a very adventurous lady, I like to try something at least three times just in case I don't like it...” She winked at him, “You know where I am if you ever wanna come over to the dark side. Maybe you'll like it...”

Rayshida took a deep breath, “Miss Janine Melnitz I presume?”

“Who's asking?” She spat back as the ghost behind her growled.

“My name is Dr. Rayshida Stantz, I'm from another dimension where your Ghostbusters are at the moment...”

“Well Dr Stantz, you better bring my boys back or I'm going to let my ghost here eat you!”

“YeAh EaT YoU... hUn?” The ghost stopped for a moment and looked at the red head confused... “bUt JaNiNe...”

“Ray, bring up your screen so she can talk with them, reassure her that they're ok.” Enza said as she brought up the screen on her end.

“Miss Melnitz,” Rayshida began calmly, “I'm going to slowly move my hand to my other wrist and you can speak with your guys, is that ok..?”

“Sure, but if you make any sudden move...”

“Yeah, I know, you'll atomize me with your gun.” Rayshida said as she proceeded to bring up the screen.

As soon as the screen popped up, Janine could see Egon and Peter with two other people with Ray and Winston behind with another person. 

“EGON!” She shouted as she came closer to the screen, “Are you ok? Did they hurt you?”

Egon become a little annoyed but kept it to himself, “Yes Janine, we're all fine here. How's the containment unit?”

Janine looked at him strangely, “You've been missing a week and the first thing you're concerned with is the containment unit?”

Egon looked at her puzzled, “Of course! It's important...”

“It's fine!” She grunted, “When are you guys coming back here? What happened? I went out to find you but all I found was Ecto alone and you guys gone.”

Enza and Egon gave each other a sullen look, “Janine,” He began, “we're going to be staying here for a while, we're not sure when we'll be able to return home at the moment...”

“WHY?!” Janine couldn't believe her ears, “Egon, I don't understand...”

“We were kidnapped by dimensional smugglers and now we're involved in the court case.” He replied, “We can't leave or we leave our counterparts legally responsible...”

“Miss Melnitz, “My name is Doctor Enza Spengler...”

Janine gave her a suspicious look, “A girl Spengler? Really.”

“I assure you that we will take very care of your men until we are able to release them back to your world...”

“Well, that's really nice of you Doctor, but I've been getting calls all over town and I can't do anything on my own, so how am I supposed to keep this place running without my boys?”

“That's what I'm trying to get at, we have a replacement team that will be dispatched soon to you until we can get this court issue settled. They are the best team we have and they will assist you in all your Ghostbusting needs. Their leader is Dr. Jill Holtzman. She may be a little eccentric but I assure that she and her team are well trained and professional.”

“So you're sending a crew here? That's suspiciously nice of you...”

“It doesn't matter what dimension we live in, we are all Ghostbusters and we take care of our own.” Enza leaned back into her seat, “The only thing is that we are from a completely different world and there will be an adjustment period, I'm sure you'll be able to handle them just fine.”

Janine turned off her gun and holstered it back on the pack, she began to pout and stare at Egon, “But... what am I going to do here without you...”

“You'll be fine Janine, you always are.” Egon tried to reassure her, “I trust Dr Spengler's team, they'll be able to keep the business going until we can come back.”

“We'll be keeping contact with each other, Miss Melnitz.” Added Enza, “So we can assist you and our team as well as keep you up to date with the court situation.”

“And when are these new guys coming?” Janine was obviously upset with the situation.

“I'll be sending them over tomorrow morning Miss Melnitz,” Enza tried to smile, to seem more friendly.

“So, are we good here?” Rayshida asked. 

“I guess...” Janine said in a low and disappointed tone.

She placed a reassuring hand on Janine's shoulder, “They're ok, and we'll make sure you're ok too.”

Janine looked the tigress and then looked back at Egon, “I don't have a choice, do I?”

He shook his head, “I'm sorry Janine, but none of us do at the moment.”

“Wonderful...”

~*~

Enza couldn't stop scratching her head anxiously, the third scan of Egon's brain hadn't changed much the information she was reading. Again, the tribentals were present and seemed to have grown by a little more of a percent since the first scan. A small change, but it was a change. Was this world beginning to affect him and if so, how and why? Was if affecting the other men? Or was it just because he had some sort of human/dragon hybrid? And what did this have to do with her own species, herself in fact?

Her eyes were beginning to sting from staring at the screen for far too long, she hadn't stopped since everyone left for the night and the girls left to start their shift. Between the smugglers, the dimensional breaches and now Egon's mystery, she was getting the feeling that the universe had waited long enough to remind her that she wasn't as smart as she'd like to think.

The sound of thunder booming though the building brought her back to the dark and empty laboratory, the lightning had illuminated the area for but a moment. She never had her scientists to work at night unless it was urgent, she liked to keep this time to work on her more private inventions without an audience about.

Enza smiled as the thunder pounded again, how long has it been since she enjoyed a good flight with the storms? She rarely used her true form, only when dire circumstances required it and not for long. Perhaps that's what she needed, a good flight to clear her mind and set it right again. Perhaps then she could reexamine her problems with a refreshed mentality and get a better understanding of the situations.

She instantly took the transported up to the staff parking lot on the top of the roof, there wasn't as many vehicles as during the day due to the office staff being mostly day. As she stepped off the pad, she immediately saw him standing at the stone fence around the perimeter of the building. 

Egon had his back to her and seemed to be mentally far away, he hadn't noticed her nor heard the sound of the transporter functioning. For a moment, Enza thought to just turn around and let him be, but her adopted mother's voice came to mind.

“Always be kind, Enza, to yourself and to others, you never know when just a simple act of kindness can change someone's world for the better...”

She slowly and quietly walked towards him, he was still lost in this thoughts as she stopped just a few feet away from him, “Dr Spengler, am I disturbing you?”

“GAH!” Egon yelled as he jumped back in fright.

“Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you...”

Egon settled himself, “It's fine, I hadn't heard you come up. And please, call me Egon.”

Enza smiled and nodded, “Likewise.” She walked beside him and leaned over the edge, “It's past midnight, I didn't expect you to be up this late.”

Egon leaned back in his place beside her and looked at the storm coming, “I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd come out here and watch the storm come until it started to rain.”

“Missing home I gather?”

He smiled softly at her, “Something like that.”

“I want to apologize for Petra's behavior the other day...”

“No need to, she simply exposed something that I didn't want to face and I should have a long time ago. She's incredibly intuitive...”

Enza smiled herself, “Petra is much more intelligent than she lets on, she enjoys to keep people on their toes. It gives her an advantage over them. She wasn't like that before she joined the army. When she was discharged, she had developed a real zest for life, a little too much some would say.”

He chuckled, “Sorta sounds like Peter, but I gather that she was serious with her education, unlike him. Am I correct?”

“Yes,” She chuckled with him, “She's a very good student. Always paying attention to detail.”

“So what brings you up here?” He asked her.

“Came up to enjoy the storm and clear my head. Sometimes I feel I need to do something that doesn't require much thinking to recharge.”

Egon nodded, “I get that way sometimes.”

Enza thought for a moment as the two watched the lightning dance in the black sky, “Would... would you care to join me in enjoying the storm?”

Egon looked at her puzzled, “Isn't that what we're doing right now?”

She gave him a mischievous smiled, “I have something much better in mind...”

Egon seemed to like that look she gave him, until he saw her begin to unzip her uniform and turned away nervously, “Ah... Enza, I'm flattered but I hardly know you...”

“Dragons have no sense of modesty Egon,” He heard behind him, “I assure you it's not what you think. You can turn around.”

“I rather not...” His voice nervous, she thought it adorable.

“Please, just turn around...”

Egon took a deep breath and slowly turned to face her, he wasn't prepared to see the majestic creature before him. He gasped at her beauty as she stood nervously in her natural form.

She didn't look anything like the dragon they had encountered before, she was more natural looking, as a dragon should be. Her body was shaped similar to a hell hound, but the rear was longer and just as muscular as the rest of her body. Her back was just above his head, with three long fined ridges starting from the top of her head and down to the tip of her tail, the middle one being higher than the other two, giving her a mow hawk look. 

Her ears were more spines with webbing between the pines. Her front and back legs were long and muscular and each claw had four long black talons, they looked as sharp as the dagger like teeth in her maw. Her neck was not as serpent like as his ancestor's but thick and strong. Her long tail had a pike protruding what resembled two bone like blades. Her head wasn't as long and seem to fit well, her dragon eyes kept staring at him, wondering what he thought of her. 

Her colors shined in the light of the lighting, it began a dark metallic blue on her back and top of her head and faded to an almost silver on her throat, belly and legs. Her wings took him the most by surprise, the shear size of them amazed him. She did look more of a real dragon than the other one had. She was magnificent to him.

Egon stared at her, his eyes locked onto her, “I've never seen such a beautiful creature before...”

Enza felt her face heat up, Egon could clearly see her blush though her metallic scales on her face, turning her scales a shade of purple.

Enza didn't know what to do with the compliment, her kind had never been look on like that before. They had always been hated, feared, rejection for their ignorance and superiority complex made them hated throughout the world.

“Ah...thank you...” She tried to get her face to stop blushing.

Egon shook himself back to reality, “Oh! This is what you meant by...” He became nervous again, “I'm afraid that I won't be able to join you. I'm afraid of heights. An incident during a job, I was knocked off the roof of a skyscraper...”

“I promise that I won't let you fall, Egon. You can trust me. As Petra would say, it's best to face your fears then be ruled by them.” She smiled at him, her long stiletto teeth showing, “I swear that I would never let anything happen to you, you are safe with me.”

He thought for a moment, when would he ever have a chance to ride a dragon again? He felt he could trust her, he was starting to feel quite comfortable around her , ever since they first saw each other there was something about her that drew him towards her. “Alright, Enza, I'll take you up on your offer...”

Enza knelt and stretch our her wing to help him climb up, she waited until he found his footing and settled himself on her back trying to find something to grab hold of before cautiously standing back up.

“You can grab a hold of my spines...” She mentioned as she felt him try to adjust himself for a better seating.

“I'm not hurting you..?”

“No...” She let out a small giggle, “...you're fine. Just hold on, the force of the flight will help keep you on my back.”

“Do you usually have people ride you?”

“No, Petra's the only one who enjoys the flight. I have though taken all three at once though, we had to escape a sinking haunted island a while ago. Dragons usually frown on people ridding them, they believe it's insulting and degrading.”

Egon grabbed a hold of her spines and held on, “I think I'm ready..”

Enza began to rush towards the edge of the building, “Hold on, the first jump is the hardest...” 

And with one giant leap, she jumped into the air with her wings extended to catch the blowing winds of the storm. Egon let out a yelp of fear as he clutched tighter and closed his eyes, he felt every muscle under him move with a rhythm as he felt them go higher and higher. The wind blew past them as Enza climbed higher as the the thunder pounded and the lightning danced, she could feel the human shivering in fear.

“Are you alright, Egon?” She asked as she leveled herself out and began to glide over the bright city.

“F..f..fine...” He stuttered, his eyes still closed.

“You're missing the view...” 

Egon slowly opened his eyes, still holding on for dear life, he cautiously looked around and gazed above the wondrous bright rainbow colors of the lights below. This New York was enchanting at night. As they flew above, Egon began to feel more comfortable on her back. They took a turn and headed towards the East River, flying so low that Enza dragged a claw over the river creating a long ripple in the calm water. He sat up on her back and took in the sight of the colorful harbor with all their ships, they flew close to a giant yacht with the Ghostbuster's sign on it.

“Is that Petra's boat?” He asked.

“It actually belongs to the business...” She replied, “...Petra doesn't know but I've purchased the motors for it and they'll be installed next month. She needs to learn that she can't use business funds for personal gains. That will be our new aquatic vessel for training and research. A fully functioning station and laboratory. Just need to hire and train an aquatics team or two.”

“That's a better use for it than to impress her conquests.”

“Exactly.”

Enza's wings began to flap faster, gaining altitude again to fly around the Statue of Liberty. Egon, more confidant, let himself enjoy the ride, the wind blowing past him, puling his hair apart as they reached the clouds. Enza raced faster as they broke through the clouds and hovered above in the clear sky, Egon couldn't help but be mesmerized by the clear night and it's bright shining stars. She slowed lowered herself down and gently laid on a large dark cloud.

“Don't get off, we Storm Dragons have a natural ability to sit on clouds.” She sad as she folded her wings by her side, “How was your first flight?”

“Amazing!” He shouted excitedly as he absorbed the beautiful sight before him, “This is an incredible once in a life time experience, I'm so glad that I took you up on your offer.”

“I'm happy you're enjoying yourself.” Enza laughed, “Do you feel brave enough to fly through a storm cloud with me? I promise that the lightning won't hit us. You'll be safe.”

“Yes.” He replied with a strong and thrilled voice, “Yes, I want to experience it.”

“First, I'll activate the lightning.” She extended her wings out and took off back into the air with a more bold rider on her back.

She hovered in mid air, just above the dark clouds, Egon felt her chest begin to expand and the loud whistle of air as she inhaled deeply. As she opened her muzzle and with a clash of thunder, she let out her breath weapon towards the clouds. A large stream of electricity charged towards the clouds, encouraging the storm to rage further. 

“That's your breath weapon?' Egon asked excitedly.

“Yes, were you expecting something else?”

“Yes, fire.”

“Wyverns breath fire, we breath lightning. There are five subspecies of dragons, just for the record. Hold on...” She replied as she dove down towards the raging lightning storm.

She broke through the electrified clouds and into the heart of the storm, Egon could feel the static around him, the hairs on his body began to stand on end as Enza swerved though the maze of lightning. He let out a cry of excitement as they flew past bolts of electricity and the thunder boomed onward. 

After several more passes, they began their decent back to the roof of the station, the Storm Dragon slowly landed with a grace Egon didn't expect, he hardly felt the landing. She knelt down and extended her wing, Egon slid down and landed on his feet with his back turned to her.

“THAT WAS AMAZING!” He shouted as Enza changed back to her elven form got dressed.

“The next time I go for a flight, I'll make sure to invite you again.”

Egon turned to her, she was fully dressed again, “Could we take Ray with us? To be honest he's infatuated with dragons and other mythical creatures...”

“Of course.” She smiled.

They stood for a moment, their bodies closer, staring into each other's eyes and smiling nervously, both unaware of the bond slowly developing between them...

“Egon,” Enza began, breaking the awkward silence, “I'm planing on forming a new research team to investigate the barrier breach issue and we could use someone who's familiar with those non-magical worlds... would you be interested in assisting me with it? Perhaps even take lead?”

Egon's eyes grew large with the realization of the offer, “Of course! I would be honored to.”

“Wonderful. I expect you to be in the lab at eight am, alright? In case you would prefer it, three's a large cardboard box on the shelf to the left in the store room in the garage. It has my name on it. I ordered a dozen new uniforms a few years ago but they came in several sizes too large for me. I'm sure that they'll fit you fine. They even have the Spengler name on them.”

Egon couldn't help his silly grin on his face, “Absolutely Enza, thank you so much for everything you've done...” 

Without thinking, or more on instinct, Egon bent over and quickly gave Enza a small kiss on the check, which resulted in both of them staring at each other in surprise. 

“Ah... I think... I better... head to bed...” Egon stuttered out as he nervously walked towards the pad, almost tripping on the steps.

Enza simply nodded at him and kept her eyes on his as the transporter flashed, taking him to the bedroom floor. She slowly placed her hand over the still tingling cheek, her body getting warmer as she lingered on the soft touch of his lips on her skin. The sweet sensation began to build from her stomach and found itself flooding over her still body. What were these new sensations and why did she want more of those lips on her skin?

To be continued...


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Petra slowly walked on the transport pad going through everything she would say to her sister to convince her to let Egon work in the lab with her. She repeated every key note, she had to make sure her facts were in order and the idea seem inspiring. Enza was difficult to manipulate, she would smell a con a mile away. Being raise in a household of Venkmans made the dragon wary.

She got off the pad and put on her best smile as she walked into the main part of the lab. The assistants were busy away at their tasks as she looked around but didn't see Enza anywhere, but she did see her second in command busy at one of the computer terminals.

“Hey Roger boy!” She called to him as she strutted towards him, “Where's your boss at?”

“Hmm.” He huffed, “THEIR in the portal room....”

Petra stared at him for a moment, the usual friendly centaur seemed miffed, “What's up in your tail this morning?”

“Nothing!” He sulked, “I just don't feel comfortable working with someone who...”

“Yeah, I'm over this, Roger.” She said as she began walking towards the doors to the portal room, “Go get drunk and ride your mare for a few hours, make another foal, that'll put a smile back on your face.” She chuckled.

“Then why did you ask?” He growled.

“Because Enza said I HAVE to be nice to you and I like keeping my little sister happy. THAT was my good deed to you for the day.”

As she opened the door, she noticed the portal activated and four different style of dressers sitting group together a few feet away from the platform.

“Hey Spengs, what's all this shit?” She asked as she turned to the main console, but it wasn't Enza sitting in front of the monitors.

Egon was sitting in her sister's chair, dressed in uniform, with the SPENGLER name on it, staring back at her. Petra was shocked to see him here, and in Enza's spot. She rubbed the back of her head curiously and walked over to him.

“How did you..?” She started to ask but Egon placed a finger over his mouth as Enza's voice came over the speakers. Petra looked at the screen and saw a picture of a very angry Janine and that they were in the garage part of the building.

“As I have already explained to you Miss Melnitz, that all their food and personal necessities will be provide to them by us. You don't have to pay them, they will be...”

Petra moved closer to Egon and whispered, “So the ex is giving Spengs some sass is she?”

Egon leaned closer to her, “Janine's just going through a hard time right now, she just needs time to adjust...”

“Oh I understand everything, Dr Spengler, but you could just have taken SOME of their stuff instead of all of it! It looks like you're moving them permanently to YOUR dimension...”

Petra chuckled, “Oh Spengler, she's being very territorial, she sees Spengs as a threat. I can tell from her defensive posture.”

Egon starred strangely at her, “Why would she think Enza's a threat?”

The vampire gave him a smug look, “You don't know women, do you?”

“I assure you Miss Melnitz that I am not trying to steal your man...” They heard Enza say.

Both Enza and Janine starred at each other with eyes wide in shock. Egon choked on the air and almost fell off his chair as Petra let herself fall on the floor as she belted out a laugh so loud that Enza heard it over her radio.

“MEN!” Enza had no idea where that came from, “I meant I'm not trying to steal your men... I mean WE! WE ARE NOT TRYING TO STEAL YOUR MEN!”

“That's why!” Petra laughed, “Oh... I'm going to have so much fun with this one... I love it when she goofs...” Petra squealed from the floor as she held her side, “Remind me to tell you the story of when we went to India in our beginning years, it's an awesome Enza story!”

“Oh I know EXACTLY what you meant...” Janine hissed.

Enza gathered herself, “Miss Melnitz, I've had enough of this conversation with you. Now as per the instructions of YOUR employers, Dr Venkman, Dr Stantz and Dr Spengler, the rightful OWNERS of this establishment, you are to accommodate the team and assist them with the integration into your world's culture and mannerisms. Is that clear, Miss Melnitz?”

Janine crossed her arms and gave the dragon a scornful look, “Oh it's clear all right...”

“GOOD!” Enza emphasized, not letting Janine finish her sentence, “Now, I will leave you to getting to know your new TEMPORARY crew while I go gather some of Dr Spengler's tools he has requested...”

“Whoa lady, no one goes into Egon's lab...”

Egon moved closer to the mic, “Janine, Dr Spengler has my permission to gather items I need here to service our packs. Just let her do her job Janine, we owe her a lot right now...”

Janine looked around the room, “Egon?”

Enza sighed, “He's at the console right now and can see and hear everything, I thought I made that quite clear when we first came through the portal that he would be supervising this transaction from our dimension.”

“Oh...I forgot..” Janine took a few paces back, her mood changed to one of somber, “If you say so Egon...”

“Janine...” Egon began, “...I need you to trust these people, they are really bending backwards for us right now. We're counting on you to take these guys by the hand and help them help us. Can you do that for us?”

“Oh Egon, you know I'd do anything for you...”

Enza rolled her eyes and kept herself from gagging while Petra kept laughing hysterically as Egon placed a hand over his embarrassed face, “Thank you Janine, we appreciate this, a lot...”

“You can show me when...” Janine had more to say but Enza stopped her.

“Miss Melnitz. The Crew, go set up with them. I'm on a tight schedule so I will leave you to your task...” Enza said as she started to walk briskly towards the stairs.

“But I didn't get to say goodbye to...”

“I'm sure he knows!” Enza snapped back as she raced up the stairs and away from the obsessed woman.

Petra finally pulled herself together and moved over to the console, “Hey Spengs, how's your morning, babe?”

“I thought I heard your cackle, Petra.” She replied as she came up to the second floor, “What brings you to the lab this early? Shouldn't you be in bed by now?”

“Yeah but I couldn't sleep and thought how fun it would be to come bug you...”

“I have no time nor the patients right now, we're behind scheduled and you know how much I despise being behind schedule...”

“Ok, fine, I'll wait for you to get back here before I get on your nerves, since someone else has...” She chuckled.

Egon turned to her with a scornful gaze, “Petra, do you mind not getting her more agitated than she already is?”

“Fine! I'll just hang out over here and let you two finish... bunch of no hee haws” She walked over to where Fawna was monitoring the portal's systems, “Hey there little deer, whatcha doing...?”

Egon sighed and turned his attention back to the screen where he saw a still picture of his lab, “Enza?”

“I'm here Egon, I was just....”

“Reminiscing? I'm sure our firehouse is bringing back a lot of memories, all good I hope.” He leaned back into the chair and crossed his leg over this other one in a relaxed manner.

“Actually, I was going through the day we four first came here to look at it. Ray was so excited to buy it. We had to pull her aside and stop her from acting as such in front of the real-estate agent...” Enza said as she grabbed one of the hard plastic cases from under one of the tables and began to fill it with tools and supplies.

Egon chuckled, “Did you get a better price?”

“A much better price, Wanjay is an excellent negotiator...”

Enza was still gathering the rest of Egon's equipment when Jill Holztman came running into the room excitedly. She was a tall woman with neck long bright yellow curly hair that seemed to go where it wished. She always had a set of yellow goggled over her eyes, to hide her true eyes. 

“HEY! Doc S! When can we see the containment unit? I'm dying to touch it...” She said as she started to look around the room in amazement, “Whoa! Check out this stuff! And you're saying he makes all this stuff without hyper-delnite? How? This is so awesome! I NEED TO KNOW THIS VOODOO HE DO SO WELL!”

“It seems that you have another fan, Egon.” Enza let out a small giggle.

Egon smiled, “I'll be happy to walk you through the gear at a later date, Dr. Holztman...”

“Call me Jilly, Doc, everyone else does...” She grabbed a hold of a trap, “Is this the trap we're going to be using? You have no idea how excited I am to be here... and where's this pet ghost I keep hearing about? I brought some treats for him. When is Janine going to teach me to drive that car? I can't wait to drive on something solid! Never done that before! Do you think that Janine's going to let us go out and explore after work? Are we going to be on call? Are we nights or days? Do they have a great burger place close by, you know I love my burgers... I LOVE THIS PLACE!”

“I thought you would enjoy this assignment.” Enza replied as she grabbed the last few things on Egon's list, “I believe Slimer is hiding at the moment, the energies we're emitting is frightening him, but I'm sure once he gets used to you all, he'll be fine.”

“So, can we PLEASE go check out the containment unit now?” Jilly placed the item back down and tried to give her boss puppy dog eyes, “Maybe Slimer's hiding down there! I got the treats right here...”

“Yes, we'll go.” She handed Jilly the case, “Bring this down to the portal for me please?”

“Sure thing Doc S.” Jilly replied as she took the case with ease and almost ran down the stairs.

“She sure has a lot of energy.” Egon commented.

“She does, she's a great leader and very enthusiastic person. Very likable and brilliant scientist. ” Enza took a moment and looked around the room again, so many past memories of a time when there was just the four of them alone against the world. She was starting to miss those days even though it was such a hard start, but they were so happy and so close back then. 

“So Doctor Spengler,” She heard Egon over the radio, “since you're going to see my unit, am I going to see yours? It's only fair.” He chuckled.

Petra stopped her harassment on the young doe and turned her attention to Egon, was he just flirting with Enza? She heard her sister giggle in reply, not a loud one but a small one, a shy giggle, a giggle of a shy girl interested... Petra knew that sound by heart but never ever thought she'd hear it from Enza the Ice Queen.

“Well, Doctor Spengler, I guess since it's only fair, but I'm sure yours is much more impressive than mine...” Was her sister's flirty reply.

Enza flirting? Did the Nine Hells just freeze over? If Petra's jaw wasn't attached to her skull, it would have fallen on the floor as she tried to understand what was going on at the moment. Egon had a massive grin on his face, the two still talking sweetly with each other as new lovers would. Petra was an expert at the art of seduction, and she knew what game was going on. However, she wondered if they knew, she doubted it.

Petra had a feeling that something associated with the guys was affecting Enza's behavior, as she gazed at the human conversing with the dragon, Petra was getting the impression that it was actually Egon who was affecting her sister. Well, it was a hunch she had, and she was slowly coming up with her own little experiment to prove it... and the Mayor's Gala would be the perfect place to test her theory... she was a scientist after all... She looked at her watch, she had a few calls to make before tomorrow's grand event. She slid out of the portal room with a mischievous grin on her face, a plan forming in her mind. If what she was suspecting was actually happening, then it wouldn't be too long before the station would be filled with the sound of tiny Spengler feet running about...

~*~

Rayshida paced around the garage in her pink evening gown standing in front of the long black limo, “How long is she going to be? We're going to be late.”

Wanjay, dressed as well in a bright yellow evening gown leaned against her fiance, Musharraf, a tall humanoid with a face like a lion with long black hair and dressed in a black tux, had his arms wrapped around her waist, “She said she had something important to do first.”

Mush laughed, “When has she ever been on time for anything?”

“I know...” Ray kept pacing, “...but it's the Mayor's HUGE Gala at the Museum, there's going to be huge crowds, lots of paparazzi, tons of important people inside the event, spectacular shows, a live band...”

“Everything that Petra lives for.” Wanjay replied as they heard the transporter activate.

“About time Petra!” Rayshida said as they all turned to see Peter, Ray, and Egon walking towards them, all dressed in tuxes and groomed to perfection. 

“Wow!” Exclaimed Rayshida as she moved closer to ray and adjusted his crooked tie, “You sure do clean up nicely...”

“Thank you...” Ray grinned as he blushed, “You look great too, Ray.”

“Isn't there another one?” Muff asked.

“Enza's got Winston's fiance over for a bit.” Peter replied, “They're already hanging out in the theater alone watching movies. Sounds like they're going to have a great night, and so will we! Finally we get to let our hair down!” He looked at Egon's Pompadour, “Ok, maybe not you...”

Egon just rolled his eyes.

“Petra's letting you guys come to this event?” Wanjay looked at the guys curiously, “Usually Petra brings some famous person as her date.” She began to chuckle and looked over to Egon and Peter, “So I guess she's going to walk in with you two on her arms isn't she. Gods damn Petra's Ego.”

“Actually,” Egon began with a happy grin on his face, “Petra said that the Mayor had invited us as well to the even yesterday. Apparently she's a large Ghostbuster fan and wanted to meet us. Peter is going to be Petra's date and I will be Enza's.”

The girls and Muff stared at each other confused.

“Um, Enza doesn't go to these big events.” Said Rayshida, “Dragons don't do well in crowds...”

“And Enza's got...” Wanjay didn't want to volunteer more information than she knew the private dragon would want, “...she has really bad anxiety and hates the press...”

Egon's face changed from a smile to one of disappointment and confusement, “But Petra informed me that she would be attending...”

“...CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS, SPENGS! YOUR WORDS, NOT MINE!” They heard Petra shout from the transporter, “The Mayor's expecting you babe, and you don't want to disappoint the person who holds you in such HIGH regards now, do you?”

Everyone turned around towards the pad, they saw Petra dressed in a black pin stripped suit with a white shirt and black high heeled boots with her lapels open to expose her ample cleavage. Gold and jewels decorated her neck and hands besides the piercings. Her hair was brushed to the side exposing her shaved side, her smoky eyes and dark red lips completed her evening look. She even had her nose and lip piercings on for this even. 

The strange part was she had Enza over her shoulder, her legs kicking in front making the light lavender dress she wore wisp about like soft clouds. Her small white shoes pointing downwards as she tried to calmly pry herself from her sister's vampiric grip, the satin like martial floating about around the two. Petra put her finger to her mouth to everyone else as the dragon complained on.

“PUT ME DOWN PETRA! THIS INSTANT!”

“NOPE! I know you'll run babe, and you HAVE to come. I didn't fight with you for an hour to get this dress on for twenty minutes of showtime. I'm only asking for two hours!” Petra replied as she walked up to Egon and let her sister down with her back facing him.

Enza was furious, “Twenty minutes and I AM flying right out of there...”

“Nope.” Petra had that mischievous grin, she reached over to Enza's hair and pulled out the pen that held the bun together allowing her long white hair to fall behind her. 

Egon stared in silence as her hair fell down past the small of her back, the ends curling in ringlets around her hips. He began to feel that tingling warmth again flood his body and mind, he fought the temptation to touch her silky silver hair... 

Enza cried out in surprise. “My hair!”

“You're letting your hair down for once, Spengs, and don't worry about about the party...” She gave her sister again that sly smirk and wink, “...I've got something that'll help take your mind off it...”

Petra turned Enza around to face her date, Egon gave her a reassuring smile as the young dragon slowly moved her eyes to his. Petra took a few steps back and watched with inner glee as the two's eyes met and froze for a moment. Egon took a breath in as he looked at his date, her hair cascading from the side of her face, hiding the shy eyes as they stared into his in wonder and amazement. Her dress was simple and modest, her neck line was almost to her bare color bone, the long flowing sleeves seem to cascade down her arms to her wrists. 

Wanjay leaned over to Petra and whispered, “What are you up to now, Venkman?”

“What makes you think I'm up to something, Zee...?” She whispered back as she watched the tension and strain leave her sister's face and shoulders. 

“Oh, I don't know, how about that shit eating grin on your face and the fact that you would NEVER make your sister go to a big party like this..?”

“All in due time, my dear Zee, all in due time...” Petra noticed that perhaps Enza's mind might have over loaded, “I''ll be right back...”

She rushed back to Enza's side and whispered in her ear, “...you look handsome Egon...”

Enza blushed as she tried to spit the words....” Ah... yes... you... ah... do... look handsome... Egon...”

“Thank you...” Egon replied in an almost whisper, “You look absolutely fetching, Enza....”

“Wouldn't want him to go alone now do we?” Petra whispered in her other ear. “Just a couple of hours, I'm sure it's not going to be as bad as last time... you'll have someone to talk to... and mom always said you have to step out of your comfort zone once in a while... and you know mom's always right...”

Enza inhaled deeply, trying to get her bearings, “I guess an hour... or two... perhaps... wouldn't hurt...”

~*~

Rayshida stared out of the limo's window at the large crowd that gathered on each side of the wide red carpeted entrance of the museum of nation history of New York, the noise they were making penetrated within the vehicle as it descended to the parking zone where Ushers in red and black uniforms waited for the patrons to arrive at the Mayor's Annual event.

“Petra, I think your PR Team is too much...” Rayshida said as she climbed back to her seat beside Ray, “Seriously, how much did this cost?”

Petra leaned back in her seat and poured Peter another glass of Champagne after she had filled hers, “Ray my dear kitten, we are a brand. And a brand has to ALWAYS be in the public's eye at all times...”

“So branding is important, got it...” Peter replied as he made that mental note.

“It's more than just branding ourselves, it's SELLING our story over and over without making the kids sick of it.” Petra smiled.

“But it's not the objective of our chosen profession.” Enza added as she sat almost glued to Egon's side with his arm around her since there was no place for it to go in the back of the crowded limo, her nerves were beginning to creep in the back of her neck as she gazed out into the crowd, “We are not puppets for people's entertainment. We are professional paranormal and supernatural investigators and scientists that also deal with the removal of said entities....”

“Here here!” Rayshida said in agreement.

“Don't you find that making yourselves so public would interfere with your actual jobs?” Egon asked as he kept a subtle eye on Enza's physical behavior for any change. 

“All the time.” Said Rayshida.

“It's a pain in the ass.” Added Wanjay.

“Disruptive to the entire operation.” Enza finalized.

“As much as you guys want to bitch about it, it brings in a bunch of capital that pays for pretty much anything our heart's desires.” Petra threw back, “New vehicles and machinery to work on them with, you don't have to wait to buy parts, any material that money can buy for any project, and tons of research funds for whatever the hell you guys want to study. Those movies they made of us paid for your precious Holodecks...”

“You're right...”

“You do make a valid point...”

“It still disrupts the daily functions of the operation.” Enza repeated as she slowly began to scratch the back of her hand, “Between the calls from news agencies, the paparazzi trying to bombard almost every case we ourselves go on, and YOUR fans climbing the building itself, it does put strains on the running of our corporation...”

Egon immediately moved his hand over hers to stop her digging her nails into her skin and leaving long red welts, “No...” He whispered gently in her ear. He didn't say it as a commend, but more of a concern for her.

She stopped her scratching and looked outside as the limo parked at the curb in front of the red carpet, her breathing became faster as the door opened and the sound of thousands of screaming fans filled the inside of the car as the Ghostbuster theme song played loudly. Enza closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her nerves.

Egon leaned closer to her ear, “We don't have to go in, we can just stay here and have the driver take us back to...”

Enza smiled nervously at him and patted his hand, “It's alright Egon, I can manage it.” 

Petra stood up from her seat with Peter in hand and smiled at the rest, “Showtime folks, remember to smile, wave, and show our fans how much we LOVE them!” She hoped out of the car with Peter almost dragged out.

As the famous unbridled leader stood with her arms extended towards each side of the red carpet, her fans screamed and shrieked as Petra began sing with the song...

“WHO YOU GONNA CALL?” Petra shouted to them, the fans screamed back “GHOSTBUSTERS!”

Petra grinned ear to ear as the energy flowed around her, “I CAN'T HEAR YOU!”

The crowd screamed louder as Petra ran back and forth from both sides taking group pictures with her fans as the metal fences were being pushed forward and the security teams worked hard to keep the fences up in the frenzy. 

Wanjay and Muff got out next and as Ray and Rayshida were also exiting, she turned to Enza with a worried look on her face, “I don't know you let her talk you into these things, you can just say no...”

“I appreciate the concern Ray, but I'll be fine.” She replied and she began to stand up to get out herself with Egon.

Egon stood out of the vehicle first, extending his hand to her, she smiled softly at him as she took his hand and stepped out causing the frenzied crowd to roar louder. She took another deep breath as he took her arm into his and slowly lead her towards the decorated entrance of the Museum.

Egon leaned closer to her, “They seem to love you...”

“They're in love with the false image that Petra and her PR team created of me. Also, this is the first time they've ever seen me in public with someone other than the girls or cadets.” She replied as she waved to the people, “Honestly, I would rather be alone in the lab with you planing the field mission we are launching tomorrow night.”

Egon felt that sweet warmth again flood over his heart, “Then let's just stay just for the necessities and then take off back to the lab...”

She smiled at him, “I like that plan. A few pictures, talk to the Mayor for a moment....”

“Then we can make an excuse that we have an urgent experiment that requires our up-most attention...”

“Absolutely brilliant, Doctor...”

“Why thank you, Doctor...” The two shared a tiny chuckle.

“HEY SMILES!” Petra yelled at them as she and the others were standing in front of the press gallery ready for photos and quick interviews, “The party's inside, remember?” She turned to the photographers, “Remember, no flashes for Dr. Spengler or I'll sue your asses off.”

“Petra, be nice! I'm sure they know what their doing...” Rayshida said as she and Ray stood getting pictures taken.

As the Spenglers made their way to the gallery, the photographers began to snap as many pictures as they can of the illusive member and her mysterious date. Egon gently moved Enza to his other side, putting himself between the photographers and his anxious date.

“HEY! DR SPENGLER! OVER HERE! A PICTURE PLEASE!” One of the photographers shouted at them.

Egon turned to them and grinned, “No, thank you.”

Enza covered her mouth as a laughing snort came out, Egon added to hers with a chuckle at their inside joke as they entered the building first. 

Petra stood with her hands on her hips at them, her face beaming with joy and a grin ear to ear, “That's fucken amazing...”

“What is?” Peter asked.

She turned at him and pinched his cheek, “Everything, Petey! Everything's fucken amazing!”

“Well, if it isn't the skank of New York...” the two heard behind them.

Petra gave that malicious smirk again, “I recognize that annoying voice anywhere...” They turned around to see a red haired, pale skin elf staring back at them behind the barrier, her yellow suit seemed a little too small for her as the button on her top almost busting against her heaving breasts, “... usually it's screaming “Help me Raphael, help me please! I'm so useless!”

Peter looked at the angry woman, “Close friend of yours, Petra?”

“Peter, this is April Kusumoto. She's married to one of our guys back in Japan. Let's say we're not friends...”

“WAS married, thanks to your slut ass...” April snapped at them, “It's back to O'Neil now.”

“Oh! So he did go through with it!” Petra laughed, “I didn't think he would, since he loved the way you gave head. No where as good as me, but he liked it anyways. You really should learn to swallow, you might keep the next one...”

April's face angrily turned a bright red, “How dare you! It's your fault we're divorced, you tramp!”

“Hey babe, no one makes Raph do anything. He does what he wants, when he wants. You knew that long before you got married and you even caught him fucking one of your bridesmaids in the limo at your wedding and still took him back. Don't blame me for your problems, you married a tramp. What did you expect?” Petra cooed back at the angry elf.

“YOU WHORE!” She screamed, she turned to Peter, “She's a snake! She'll break your heart and rip it to pieces...”

Peter laughed nervously, “Look lady, I'm not a part of this and she's ain't ridding this dick...”

Petra laughed, “Fuck no, it'll be like fucking one of my brothers...”

“But....” Peter looked at her confused.

Petra turned to the security guards, “HEY! WE GOT AN ISSUE HERE BOYS! GETTING A HOSTILE HERE! NEED THIS TAKEN CARED OF...”

Three guards came rushing at the poor elf, grabbing her roughly as she screamed more obscenities at the vampire. Peter gave out his arm to her, and with a final laugh, Petra took it as they both caught up with the others in front of the doors.

Wanjay shook her head in disapproval at Petra, “One of these days, Venkman...”

“But not today!” She laughed, “Come on, let's catch up to the Spenglers!”

Peter raised an eyebrow, there was something about the tone of Petra's voice when she said 'Spenglers' that made him go 'hmmm...'

~*~

They saw Enza and Egon by the door, she had her hands on the side of her head with a stressful gaze as Egon was clearly talking to her with a concerned look on his face as he held her. The music was loud and the lights flashed about the dark hall. The mayor had chosen a circus theme and had the main hall decked out in majestic colors and grand displays. Acrobats, jugglers, and other performers filled the corners of the grand room as waiters dressed as clowns walked about with their trays filled with food and champagne.

Petra was beginning to feel as if she may have pushed her sister too much, she almost ran to them, “Egon, is she ok?”

“The music and the lights are setting her off, I'm trying to calm her down.” He replied as he kept rubbing her back gingerly.

“I... I'll be alright...” Enza mewed.

Egon looked back at Petra almost pleading, “Petra, she needs to get out of here now. She can't handle this amount of stimulation.”

“I can...I can get it... under control...” Enza whispered as the pounding in her mind felt like bursting in the back of her eyes.

Suddenly, the group became bombarded with bright flashes and paparazzi screaming multiple questions at the Spengler couple, Egon immediately pulled Enza behind him, shielding her from the flashing lights. 

He grabbed one of the large heavy cameras and threw it against the closest wall as he growled at them, “BACK OFF!”

Wanjay yelled at Security to come and get the trespassers out. The paparazzi were banned from any event that the Ghostbusters were at due to previous issues. Petra looked around and grinned at the doors closest, she knew exactly to what exhibit it lead to, the perfect one for these two.

As the commotion began to simmer down, Petra grabbed a hold of Egon's arm, “I got a place you guys can hide until I get our driver back here and take you both back to the station. Ok?”

Egon nodded as he picked Enza up into his arms, she was still dazed and almost falling over in the ruckus. As Petra lead them to the large double doors, The others followed and blocked the doors after the three went through. Egon immediately brought Enza to a long and wide bench in the middle of the dark room, he sat her up but held her firmly against him as they both sat quietly in the dim light.

Petra knelt in front of her sister, Enza had her head down still catching her breath and trying to get the pounding out of her head.

“You ok, Enz?” Petra asked in a soft tone.

Enza slowly looked own at her elder sister, her eyes filled with tears as the pain was obvious in her eyes, “I'm sorry Petra, I couldn't do it...”

Petra immediately took her sister's hands into her own, “No no, you did great, Enzy. Mom would be very proud of you for just taking it this far. It's my fault, I pushed too much. I'm going to go call the driver right now to take you guys home.” She pulled out a clear bottle of water from her pocket and handed it to Egon, “I grabbed it on the way in here, she'll need it in a bit after she's calmed down. We'll make sure no one comes in until the limo gets here.”

Egon nodded, “How long do you think it's going to take?”

Petra thought for a moment, “Not sure, I'll have to call, the limo service just doesn't have us as clients so who knows how many people rented that same limo.” She got up and gave her sister a long comforting kiss on the top of her head, “I'll be right back. I'm so sorry, Enzyboo.”

“It's ok, Petra, I know you were just trying to get me out of my shell... I'm not upset.” Enza whispered as she leaned her tired head on Egon's chest, “I'll be alright...”

Petra smiled at Egon, “Take good care of my baby sister, I'll be back shortly.”

Egon nodded as she left the room and back into the loud party, the group was waiting patiently for her to give them news. Wanjay gave Petra an irritated glare, shaking her head again in disappointment. 

“Is Enza ok?” Rayshida asked.

“Yeah, she's going to be just fine. She just needs a little bit of air.” Petra put on a huge grin, “She and Egon are going to check out the exhibits while the limo gets here for them.”

“Good!” Snapped Wanjay, “Knew it was a bad idea to bring her here...”

“Hey! At least she didn't panic and turned into her form and flew off like last time, I think it's an improvement.” Petra replied, “Besides, I'm sure she's going to enjoy looking at old stuff anyways.”

Wanjay leaned over to her, “I know you're up to something and I don't like where it's going, Petra.”

Petra kept that grin, “Don't worry about it Zee, I have it all under control.”

~*~

It was a short time after Petra had left that Enza was able to sit up on her own, her face calm and less tense as she drank the entire bottle of water dry.

“How long have you been having panic attacks?” Egon asked.

“All my life.” She replied as she set the bottle down, “It used to be much worse when I was younger, our mother is a psychiatrist that specializes in childhood trauma. She and our family has helped me a lot when I came to live with them.”

“I've wanted to ask you how a dragon came to be part of a family of vampires, but I didn't want to intrude...”

Enza thought for a moment, she was often asked that and the usual answer was they found her floating on a log. It was better than the truth, better than reliving her nightmares again. But she wanted Egon to know the truth, and that frightened her. How easily safe she felt with him, so comfortable in his presence. How comforting his touch was to her, his words soothing her troubled mind. 

She was about to say something but her eyes caught the glimpse of a golden claw across the room, as she looked around, she noticed where they were. She slowly got up and walked towards the wall beside the doors, she flicked a light switch and all the exhibits lite up around them, illuminating the dark room with a soft light.

Egon stood up and looked around in wonder, there where statues, displays and dioramas of all sorts of dragons. Metallic, colored, small and large, even some looked like Enza, Egon was amazed.

“This is the Hall of Dragons, the history of at least the species of dragons.” She said as she again cautiously walked towards him, “My story is very long, because it started a long time ago.”

“I'm sure it'll be a while before the limo can come pick us up, I would love to hear it.” He replied.

Enza took his arm and brought him to the first exhibit, there in the middle was two great dragons. One Egon recognized, but never saw her displayed with so much colors. The five headed dragons had a red body, and each head had a different color. Red, black, blue, green, and white. Across from her was another dragon, a single headed dragon with a crown of horns on his head, his scales seemed brighter than silver.

“Is that one, Tiamat?” Egon asked curiously.

“Yes, you know of her?”

Egon nodded, “We battled her once before, but she was all green. And we had the help of Marduk...”

Enza couldn't help but let out a scoff at the name, “Useless entity. He spends more time in cities enjoying mortal life instead of collecting Tiamat's essences, useless like all the gods. That's what you had battled, a part of her, not her full form.”

Egon looked back a the multi-colored goddess, “So this is her true form?”

“Yes, that is Tiamat in her true form, and the other is her brother and equal, Bahamut. Both were the first gods created on this world and at it's birth. Both came from the great Dragon God Ao, who gave up his body to create those two. This is Tiamat's home dimension. Or so they say.”

Egon looked at her puzzled, “I thought that Gozer was her brother?”

Enza shook her head, “No, he isn't. Tiamat was there at his creation by chance and lied to him. It pleased her to see him fail as he tried to act like a major deity when he's only a lesser one and have the other pantheons laugh at him. Gozer is a joke in the pantheons thanks to her. She loves to cause chaos wherever she goes.”

“I've never heard of Bahamut before.” Egon said as he examined the statue, “Can I assume that he would be her opposite and be a good dragon god?”

“Yes, apparently he was a great god that many loved and worshiped in his time, before the great war. As Tiamat is the goddess of destruction and chaos, Bahamut was quite the opposite, he was creation, knowledge and order, he was kindness and love. So different from his sister. He was also called the Platinum Dragon due to the color of his scales. ”

“Did they create all the dragons?”

Enza pulled him to the other exhibits, one had five dragons with dull scales. Each one was vastly different from each and each was a color of the goddess' heads.

“They both created their own dragon children. Scholars called these ones, the chromatic dragons of Tiamat. Their real names were lost to us through time. Our world is very old, Egon, perhaps one of the oldest in the multiverse.”

“Fascinating...” He whispered in awe.

They walked again to the nest exhibit, five more dragons with a metallic sheen to their scales. These ones had different colors, gold, silver, bronze, copper and brass. 

“I guess these are the metallic dragons of Bahamut?” Egon asked.

“Yes.” Enza smiled, the stress of her panic attack lessened as they walked around the exhibit, “They represented him and did his work. They were the ones that educated and nurtured the first people who appeared on our world billions and billions of years before. The only other race as old as ours are the Elves of Atlantis. All other elven races are branches from their ancestors. The only thing that they and their non magic cousins share is large ears. If you meet an Atlantian elf and take a look at Jasper, you'll see many differences. That's a story for another time.” She chuckled.

Egon looked at the metallic dragons, “Are there any around anymore? These dragons?”

“No. When Tiamat got angry with Bahamut, she called forth her dragons and all her worshipers to destroy everything her brother held dear.” Enza paused as she stared at the silver dragon, “They say it was a horrible battle, so many lives lost and so much destruction. So much loss because Tiamat was jealous of the relationship Bahamut had with the Elven God Paladine. Some speculate that they were lovers, some say brothers in everything but blood. No one knows for sure.”

Egon turned to her, “What happened next?”

“All we know is that for the war to stop, Bahamut sacrificed himself and threw Tiamat out of this dimension permanently. After the war, his constellation disappeared and Tiamat was no longer able to enter this world. However, now that Bahamut was gone from our world, she was free to take over all the dragons.”

“Gone?” Egon asked, “How does a god do that exactly? From what I can understand, a god can't just simply disappeared, it would be more likely he's re-manifested in another dimension, weak but still existing.”

Enza nodded, “We believe the same, however, it's been over five hundred million years since the war. Of course the actual number of years is quite lost to us, as well as many important information about this war.”

Egon thought for a moment, “So, with Bahamut gone, was Tiamat still able to control the dragons even thought she was banned from this world?”

“Yes.” Enza brought him to the last exhibit, there were five dragons statues. A few Egon recognized as Enza's species. But there was a difference he noticed, the three statues of storm dragons had dull scales. Enza's where shimmering in the light of the lightning the night he first saw her true form, he made a mental note and put it on the side of his mind for later evaluations.

“While she was claiming all the dragons, the Atlantian Elves with the help of the good dragons gathered every single dragon-kin and brought them all on the Island we know today as Draconian. The elves had become more powerful than the dragons and gave them all a choice, stay on the island or they will come forth and bring their god's wrath upon them. The world would not suffer at Tiamat's hands again.”

“Even the good dragons?”

Enza's face became sullen, “They had no choice, Tiamat was in control of all dragons with her brother gone. They had to be contained. And that's where our kind began the long decent into madness and corruption.”

“I would assume that Tiamat would make them become powerful warriors and wizards, ready to take over the world when she could come back. I assume she can?”

Egon began to lead her back to the bench and sat down with her at his aside, Enza thought for a few moments to how easily word what had happened to them.

“She corrupted us. Interbred the species to get rid of the metallic scales. Banned us from sharing our knowledge and power with non dragon kind. Reduced females to nothing but breeding stock while pushing the males to be more dominant. She forced into our minds that anything other than her word was beneath them. Made them believe that their best chance at surviving was keeping themselves secluded and away from the rest of the world. She even infected our most sacred gift, the mating bond.”

Egon looked at her strangely, “The mating bond?”

Enza looked back at him, her thoughts going over again how to explain something so complicated, “When we dragons are hatched, we are hatched with a bond to another, our future mate. The Multiverse Core's wild magic sort of picks out the mates, it used to be the best matches were made that way and the couple can feel the most intense and beautiful love that anyone has ever experienced. A true love of sorts. Usually the mates compliment each other, to nurture and grow the next generation. But Tiamat was able to corrupt it, making the pairings unimaginable....”

Egon felt his heart descend as she mention the mating, “When does your kind actual take the mate?” He had to know where her mate was.

“When they reach adult hood, around the age of 100, they quickly consummate their bond and the females began breeding. My Atlantian teacher told me that before the dragon war, it was when they were much older, a courtship could last many years before the couple consummated their bond.” She replied.

He had to ask, the nagging feeling inside of him needed to know, “What about your mate?”

Enza stared at him for a moment, she had suspicions but couldn't conclude them fast enough, “I... I don't have one. As far as I know. My people and the Atlantians both preform rituals on me and they both determined that I had no mate bond.”

Egon was more puzzled, but felt his heart's hope lift back up at the news of no mate, “So you had no one bonded to you?”

“I have... undesirable traits that Tiamat doesn't want polluting her corrupted line.” She turned to face him, her eyes becoming sorrowful, “I was an early hatch and was very sickly when newly hatched. The Elder females thought I wouldn't live long due to my small size, I'm half the size I should be for a healthy normal female storm dragon. The Elders even said that I wouldn't be able to pass an egg because of my small size, it would kill me. And there is the hue of my scales, a metallic hue is very undesirable. And the last nail to my coffin, is how much I rejected their ideology from the moment I could speak. The more they forced that evil creature's word on me, the more I fought them, and that was the end of my life with my people.”

Egon took her hands into his attempting to comfort her, “I guess that's how the Venkmans got you, isn't it.”

Enza nodded, “Yes, when Petra's family moved to the main island for work, our father had a large accounting contract with one of the off shore businesses there.” She paused, she wasn't ready to tell how exactly the Venkman came to have her, “Let's say that when I was almost a juvenile, both parties agreed that it was best that I go live with them when they left the Islands to go back to the states. And I've been with them ever since. I'm sorry for the length of it.” 

Egon shook his head in disbelief, “...I can't believe that your birth parents would just throw you away like that...”

“Egon...” She looked into his eyes, she could see the anger building in them, “...I hold no hatred or anger towards them. It's not their fault they did what they did. My people have been corrupted and brainwashed by that monster since Bahamut disappeared for millions and millions of years. They know not what they do, they did what they felt they had to. To them, they did the right thing, and to be truthful, I wouldn't have become the person I am today without their decision to let me go...”

Egon just kept his gaze into her eyes, he knew there was more to her story but he would wait until she felt comfortable enough to share it with him. It astounded him that everything they've done to her while she was in their care, she still forgave them for it. She was becoming more and more enchanting to him, he couldn't help the passionate emotions he was feeling for her.

He looked back into her eyes, her beautiful sadden eyes, “Do you think Bahamut will ever come back?”

Enza thought in silence, pondering over the question, “I don't know. It's not really my field of expertise. It's more Rayshida's territory, she's the one obsessed with the occult and pantheons. We could...”

“Great news Spenglers!” Petra announced as she walked into the chamber, “Give Char ten more minutes and he'll be waiting for you guys at the back entrance.”

“Good.” Egon smiled as he looked back at Enza, “The faster we get you out of here, the faster you'll feel better.”

Enza smiled back, “To be honest, I am already feeling much better...”

Petra placed her hands on her hips and grinned at them, she needed to see more than what her eyes were telling her. Besides being naturally emphatic, Petra had an ability that most vampires didn't possess. Her mother being the only other one with this gift that she knew of, the gift to see one's true soul. While Enza and Egon where busy talking and looking into each other's eyes, Petra switched her sight and gazed upon the two souls before her.

She had already seen Enza's before, the blueish silver glow of her dragon form was still the same, except this time, there was a outline of gold surrounding her spirit. That was new! She followed the golden glow, it seem to move away from her like a string and connect with Egon's soul, his soul was what shocked the vampire the most. His soul had the same golden glow around its brilliant white glow, but the shape of it was nothing like the human form that sat with her sister. Egon's soul was that of a dragon, a powerful dragon that she had never seen before...

Enza had found her mate.

Petra had to switch back to her normal sight and take a few breaths to calm down, she knew both had no clue to what was going on. She was so excited that she couldn't contain the squeal of joy that escaped her mouth.

Enza and Egon stared at her with a strange look, “Are you alright Petra?” Enza asked her.

“Never better, Enzy!” She said as she walked up to both of them and gave them both a huge loving embrace.

Enza pushed her sister away and glared at her with a confused look on her face, “What's gotten in to you?”

Petra stood back, “I'm just so excited, I'll be bringing twins home tonight! Cindy and Mindy, those two ribbon dancers...”

“I can see how that would excite you, Petra.” Egon said as he rolled his eyes.

Petra couldn't help the grin on her face, “Well, you guys better head out the back...” She pointed to the exit door at the end of the exhibit, “If you take that door, it'll take you straight to the back entrance where Char is waiting for you guys.”

Egon stood up and extended his hand to his date, Enza took it and they both began to walk away, hand in hand. Petra let a tear fall from her eye this one time, seeing her sister finally come alive brought so much happiness inside the vampire. Enza deserved happiness, and she knew that Egon was the one to give it to her sister.

Petra skipped back into the party and noticed a server with two full bottle of champagne on his tray, she immediately grabbed them and turned to go find the crew. She stopped dead in her tracks as she gazed upon a face she hadn't see in a while but always made her heart pound loudly.

She still had that long curly dark green hair, Petra loved how her hair changed with the season as did her eyes. They were amber now, the color brought out the trail of freckles that started one side of her face, over her petite nose and across to the other side. The tight strapless dress embraced her small frame, giving Petra memories of a happier time.

“Two bottles, Venkman?” The Dryad teased, “What are we celebrating tonight? Did you score another large sum of money?”

Petra couldn't hide the joy in her eyes, “My my my, Miss Barrett, what do I owe for this pleasure?”

The Dryad smiled back at her, “I was invited, and I knew you'd be here. It's been a while Petra... still rocking that killer femme fatal look I see.”

Petra couldn't stop her smile, “It has, hasn't Dana? How are the kids?”

She nodded as she thought about them, “They're good. They miss you...”

“I miss them too, Dana...” Petra leaned closer to her, “Maybe you should tell the kids to convince their beautiful and talented mother to give us another chance...”

Dana turned away for a moment, then turned back, the look in her eyes said it all to Petra, “You know I'm not ready for that...”

“My offer still stands, Dana. You know that I'm always here for you, for anything. You know that you're the only person that I really honestly love. And I'll wait forever for you.”

She raised an eyebrow at her former lover, “Seriously Petra? Doesn't sound like you're waiting to me. How many people do you bang a month?”

Petra shrugged her shoulders, “I don't know, just filling the void until the love of my life gets some sense back into her. You know very well I'll drop that shit the moment you want me back, I don't play that shit with you, ever.”

“I know...” She said as she wrapped her arms around the vampire, “I'm just not there yet, please don't be angry with me...”

Petra wrapped her arms around the young woman, “Sweetheart, I can never get mad at you, even when you left me at the alter. You're my kryptonite, baby. Forever and always.”

Petra kissed her on the top of her head, “Hey, come with me, Zee and Ray would love to see you. Zee's getting married in a few months, you wanna be my date? No strings attached and I promise to keep my hands to myself the entire night. Unless you ask nicely...”

Dana laughed, “Yes, I'll come see the girls, and yes, I would love to be your date for the wedding.”

Petra offered her arm to the Dryad, she grinned as she wrapped her arm around the vampire's. Petra with still both bottles in had, lead her love through the crowds until she found them. Rayshida was the first to notice the Dryad.

“Dana!” She streaked as she ran over and hugged the long lost companion.

“Hi Ray, I missed you too!”

Wanjay walked over and caught her own hug from Dana, “We miss you girl, have to come by the station with the kids. I'm sure we can convince Enza to let them try out the training packs again.”

“I will definitely do that Wanjay, the kids miss you guys a lot. I should bring them by more often.”

Peter and Ray stared at the woman, they could see the resemblance very well in the dim light.

“Dana,” Petra pointed to the guys, “This is Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr Raymond Stantz. They're humans from another dimension, and have their own Ghostbusting outfit on their world. Pretty cool hun? So.. whacha think of my male counterpart, babe?”

Dana gave Peter the once over, “He's definitely cute, I can work with him, so... are we talking about a threesome here, Petra? Your place or mine, mom has the kids this weekend.”

“Oh baby, I missed how your mind works...” Petra laughed.

Peter almost spit out his drink, “No thanks, I don't think it would be fair to you ladies if I just gave you one night of heaven...”

Ray rolled his eyes.

Dana Laughed, “So what you're saying is that you couldn't handle two woman...” She turned to Petra, “You're losing your touch Venkman, usually you pick good ones. Does he even know how to make a girl squirt?”

Petra laugh as she began to fill everyone's glasses, “Fuck I missed you babe...”

“So did Egon take Enza home?” Wanjay asked as Petra filled her glass.

“What's an Egon?” Dana asked excitedly.

Petra leaned over to her, “I'll tell you all about it later...” She turned back to Wanjay, “Yes he did, they should be half way home by now. And she's fine, everything's ok, life is perfect...”

“We're celebrating something, aren't we?” Rayshida asked.

“Yes we are Rayray!” Petra said as she held up the bottle and the rest held up their glasses, “To Karma!”

“Wait!” Said Wanjay as she looked at Petra cautiously, “Are we talking about good karma or bad karma?”

“Good karma, Zee.” She raised her bottle again, “TO KARMA!”

“TO KARMA!” They all toasted.

~*~

Petra hurried into the kitchen area of the recreational hall, she needed more ice as her goddess awaited up in her room. As she walked into the ice-room, she noticed one of the big screen tvs running in the lounge. She took a moment and noticed the tell tail giant curl of Egon's hair in an awkward position on the couch. Was his head laid back and was he sleeping? 

She slowly walked thought the glass doors and came around the couch, sure enough, Egon was passed out sitting on the sofa while Enza was laying on the couch with her head on his lap eating potato chips. Both were still dressed in their evening attire. He had his arm resting on her back, she seemed to have one of her arms wrapped around his leg.

“Hi.” Petra whispered as Enza looked up at her.

“Hi.” She replied.

“Whatcha guys doing down here? I thought you'd be in your lab doing something science related.”

“Egon suggested we relax for the rest of the evening, so I put on one of my programs and he seemed to have fallen asleep...”

“I see that.” Petra turned around and stared at the tv, “Firefly? Damn that's a good series, what season? Five's my favorite...”

“He made it to season one, episode four, then I think he quit.” Enza smiled.

“You going to leave him here or do you need a hand bringing him back to his room... ?”

Enza got up and stood in front of him, “I should bring him to his room, he'd have a better sleep.”

Petra moved beside her sister, “He looks pretty adorable sleeping like that, what a beauty...”

She saw her sister's face smile contently at him, “He certainly does...”

Petra grabbed his shoes and jacket as Enza gently picked up the sleeping human in her arms. It was a little awkward at first, until Enza was able to get him in a more comfortable position.

Petra tried not to laugh, “Enzy, you beast.”

“Just open the doors for me please, I can carry him up no problem.”

As they both walked towards the door, Petra help it open as Enza maneuvered through, making sure none of Egon's body touched a thing, she wanted to keep him sleeping.

Petra grinned at them both, she wish she could share the news with them. Unfortunately, this needed to be handled in their own time. Petra knew that if anyone mentioned that Egon was her mate, there was a good chance that Enza would panic and do something foolish. Her childhood trauma gave her a toxic view of the bond and relationships all together, and Petra didn't want anything to ruin this chance her sister so desperately needed. Enza would run in her panic. She was afraid of the bond and what that meant to her freedom. Abuse had a way of distorting one's perception of something that should be a wonderful experience. Petra was going to do everything in her power to make sure her little dragon sister was happy.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It was just past sundown when Kylie Griffin was opening another old worn book as she sat at the desk in Egon's lab, it had been a long week of research and fieldwork with little sleep chasing after the specter that kept giving them the runaround. The ghost resembled a giant pink worm with a gaping whole for a mouth complete with rows and rows of tiny teeth, it had a taste for rubber tires and left a long trail of wrecked vehicles and millions of dollars in property damage. Walter Peck was on their case to get the issue solved faster than it was taking.

Just as she was about to toss the useless book aside, the dimensional breach alarm sounded throughout the firehouse. She immediately jumped out of her seat and ran to the console of the machine. She began to bring up the exact coordinates of the breach before her bosses came in.

“Why? Why now?” She mumbled to herself as she heard the heavy sound of boots racing up to lab, “I really don't want to deal with another god or gods or whatever...”

“What's that alarm?” Dr Peter Venkman asked as he and Dr. Raymond Stantz looked over the screen with Kylie.

“It's the inter-dimensional breach alarm again...” She answered, “...we have an uninvited dimensional guest... again.”

“I thought Egon was going to give them all new sounds?” Peter voiced as he tried to cover his ears from the loud and irritating noise, “He's slacking off in his old age...”

“After everything he's been through, he's allowed.” Replied Ray as he shut off the alarm, “So... do we have a location, Kylie?”

“Yeah, Boss. It looks like it's in the North York Hotel by Central Park...”

Peter began to laugh, “Oh I'm going to bill them large...”

“Can't bill them if they don't call us.” Ray reminded him.

“Then we'll wait until they do...” He gave Ray a sly grin.

“Or we wait for whatever nasty came through to head our way and try to take us out.” Kylie voiced, “It's a pretty powerful portal, and it's still active...”

Ray looked at the numbers curiously, “Still active? Is this an open portal by Donatello?”

“Maybe our little green friends lost our address...” Peter chuckled,

“It's not the turtles after all, Peter. These reading are unbelievable... We've never seen anything like it before... Spengler's going to be really excited when he sees this!” Ray said as he stood up and gave Peter an excited but worried look, “I hope they're friendly...”

“Ray, when have they ever been friendly?” Peter as as he pulled out his cell and began to dial the genius's number, “Let's hope he remembered to charge his phone this time...”

~*~

Petra looked up at the open portal, it was hanging in the air at least thirty feet above her as she stood on the roof of the hotel. She watched as a large black duffle bag popped out of the portal and fell towards her. She jumped up high and caught the bag in midair, and landed beside two other similar bags. After dropping the bag with the others, she began to fiddle with the straps of the unfamiliar blue proton pack on her back.

“Anymore stuff , Ray?” She asked as she pulled the straps tighter around her shoulders, “And did the portal have to be that high in the air? I almost chipped a fang falling on my face, and that shit's expensive to fix!”

“You try to stick a portal in a world with a busted Nexus and then come talk to me. You're lucky that I could get a secure signal in.” Petra heard over her radio, “Enza and Egon are on their way with the canister of Alpha-Delnite...”

Petra looked to see her sister jump down with Egon in her arms, she couldn't help but snickered at the small woman holding a very tall man awkwardly. She let Egon down and readjusted the strap to the giant cylinder strapped to her back. The container was taller than the woman and a bit wider, but her dragon strength had no issues with the weight.

Egon was also wearing his pack, he pulled out his PKE Meter and began to scan the area as Petra gave the new world a good look over.

“Wow, this place looks so... depressing...” She said as she looked back at the Spenglers, “Are we in the right world? It's all drab... void of color almost... I bet everyone here suffers from depression and suicidal thoughts... no pun intended but I could make a killing as a therapist... or a Ghostbuster... either way, I win!”

“The readings I'm getting say we are in the right dimension, Petra. Their barrier is disintegrating at an alarming rate....” Egon replied as he began to make adjustments to his meter, “Rayshida, you couldn't have gotten us a better spot with the added difficulties, excellent job...”

“Thank you Egon, at least SOMEONE appreciates me...”

“I love you Ray, I'll bring you back some cookies...” Petra looked towards the park, “At least the park looks ok... but what's that horrid smell?”

Enza and Egon began to smell the air, “Pollution.” Egon replied as he went pack to his meter, “We should be going, not sure how long it's going to take the locals to call their Ghostbusters to come investigate the big hole in the sky...”

“And we still don't know if they're friendly or not...” Petra mentioned, “But I've come prepared...”

She lifted up an energy pistol, Enza's faced changed to anger, “What in the Nine Hells are you doing with that?”

“Protecting two of my favorite people, Spengs, that's why you brought me, remember? And after dealing with those People Busters last year, I'm not taking any chances this time...” Petra grinned.

Enza raised an eyebrow at her sister, “My, what did Egon do to be placed on that exclusive list?”

“He feels like a kid brother to me I guess...” Petra shrugged her shoulders.

Egon shook his head, “Petra, there's a good chance that it won't work here because of the malfunctioning Nexus, that's why we have my packs and equipment. I suggest you put it away...”

“I would feel better having it on me, Big Guy...”

Enza snarled at her sister, “Egon is lead on this mission Petra, if he says put it away, do it.”

Petra bit her tong and put the gun back in one of the bags and threw it over her shoulder, “And why is he lead?”

“Because he's from a very similar world, understands the technology, can speak the native language in case we loose our translators, and meld in with their culture and mannerism. You and I would be sticking out like an Orc at an elven wedding, does that answer your question?” Enza grabbed two of the bags, “We should be off, the faster we do this, the better it will be for this world and the multiverse. The Nexus can stop at any time, and then it would be a disaster that would require the attention of the Atlantians to repair....”

Petra laughed, “Those are the last people that these yahoos would want to see...”

“Then we better get going...” Egon said as he walked to the edge.

“Allow me, Sir...” Petra cooed as she grabbed Egon by the waist and puled him close to her, “I'll get you down safely...”

“PETRA!” Enza growled, “BEHAVE!”

“Trust me, I am with him.” She held him tightly as she leaped off the building and landed safely on the sidewalk with Enza landing slightly after.

The crowd didn't react to the three beings that fell from the roof and land on their feet. None of them seemed to notice. As they began to walk across the street towards the giant park, a taxicab squealed its tires and stopped a few inches away from Petra. The driver stuck his head of of his window and began to throw obscenities at the vampire, Petra laughed, she's heard better ones and more creative...

“HEY!” She shouted at the man, “I'M WALKING HERE!” 

She raised her arm and slammed her hand on the hood of the car, the sounds of metal and plastics bending from her inhuman strength filled the air as people shouted and car horns sounded.

Egon smacked the side of his head in disbelief, “What the hell are you thinking?”

Enza rolled her eyes, “Why? Why can't you just for once...”

Petra had a sheepish look, “I... forgot?”

“RUN!” Egon shouted as the driver began to get out of the car.

As the three ran into the park, the driver got out of his cab and stared confused at the damage of his car. It wasn't just the hood smashed, the entire engine block was pushed through the chassis and landed on the pavement. He was at a loss on what to do...

The three travelers stopped far from the incident deep into the wooded area of the park, as Egon struggled to catch his breath, Enza glared at her sister.

“We don't need to leave a trail of destruction behind us.” She said as she readjusted the cylinder.

“I forgot they live in a squishy world!” Petra replied in her defense, “I'm not used to this dimensional travel crap like you are...”

“I have always invited you and the others to join us but you've refused...” 

“You never did, Enz, come on now...”

“Yes she did, Petra! You never read your memos!” They heard Ray over the radio, “...and I hate to say it guys, but the farther you're moving away from the portal, the worse the connection we're getting... I might loose audio with you guys soon...”

Petra turned her head towards Enza, “But once we get that Nexus up and running then it shouldn't be a problem, right Spengs?”

“Affirmative...” She replied as she began to feel a dark cold chill run down her spine.

The young dragon scanned her surroundings, she began to feel an old presence, something familiar... something pure evil...

“Enza?” She felt Egon touch her arm, “Are you all right?”

She gave him a puzzled look, “I'm... I'm not sure... I can feel something dark and powerful... but it feels like a memory... but it's not mine... I feel cold... a great evil was here not too long ago...”

Petra came closer and concerned, “Who's memories...?”

“I'm not sure, I can almost hear voices... none I recognize... ”

“It could be psychokinetic residue from a entity that this world's Ghostbusters battled at a previous time. Perhaps your natural magic abilities are being affected by the damaged Nexus as well...” Egon suggested as he gently touched her head with the back of his hand to feel her temperature, her skin was feeling unusually cool at the moment, “We can take a better look after we've repaired the Nexus and spoken to our... associates.”

“Agree.” She replied, “We better locate the entrance to the chamber...”

“This way...” Egon smiled as he took Enza's hand and began to lead her down a sloped path.

Petra grinned as she followed the unsuspecting lovers, she couldn't wait until they discovered what was going on... and Petra was excited to be a witness of something so beautiful and natural... 

~*~

Dr Egon Spengler rushed into his lab as Kylie was examining the results of more readings from the temporal sensors.

As he threw his trench coat and briefcase on the empty desk, Kylie turned to him and smiled, “How was the conference?” 

“Not as entertaining as this new discovery...” He replied as he moved behind her to see the readings himself, “This is fascinating, could be generated by the influx of ectoplasmic energy we seem to be acquiring lately...” He gave the readings a second look, “...or perhaps the end of the world depending on what came through that portal. Odd placement though, perhaps a flying entity came through? But why is it still open?”

“Dr Venkman and Dr Stantz are already there...” Kylie replied as she began to dial Peter's cell, “...they were waiting on you.”

“Hey Spengs...” They heard Peter over the speaker, “...you should see this....”

“Have you seen the portal yet, Peter?” He asked as he began pulling different equipment from their storage.

“Yeah, it's in a funny spot. About thirty to forty feet up in the air, above the roof of the hotel. It was a big jump for them. And before we get into it, better get a hold of all the dimensions we know that have a blond Spengler with that stupid canon hairdo to find out if any are missing their nerd...”

Curiously, Egon came and leaned closer to the phone's speaker, “A blond Spengler with a Pompadour? Have you identification?”

Peter grinned at the screen of the dash cam as he leaned against the wrecked cab, “Oh yeah, it's one of them with two good looking ladies, dressed in black jumpsuits too. And they have our logo on their suits. The girls looked like Christmas elves, I don't think they're here to play Santa, though. Egon, they have a lot of stuff with them, a lot of gear and one of the girls is carrying a huge tank on her back. Girl looks too small to carry such a big thing like it was a purse. This can't be good... They were headed into the park...”

“Evil Ghostbusters?” Kylie laughed, “That actually sounds scary.” 

“Perhaps...” Egon thought for a moment, “...but why are they here and why haven't they contacted us first?”

“Well, the only thing there that would be of interest is the mood slime pool...” Kylie suggested.

Egon thought for a moment, “Why? Why would they be after the mood slime?” He began to pull off his suit jacket and sweater, “Peter, stay where you are, I'll come meet you with Winston. This has me very concerned.”

“Just look for the cab with it's hood smashed in, we'll be there with Ecto. Peter out.” 

Egon began pulling off his tie as he raced to the poll, having new Ghostbusters enter their dimension didn't bother him. It was the portal that was in the wrong place and three beings on their way to the mood slime pool without as much as a word to them. What was their purpose here? What did they have planned?

~*~

Petra, Egon and Enza stared for a bit of time at the steel door that blocked the entrance to the Nexus Chamber, the door was very thick and had warning signs as well as the Ghostbuster Logo right in the middle of it. It seemed that they didn't want anyone going in without their knowledge.

“So...” Petra gave Egon a crooked smile, “...whatcha want to do with this, Boss?”

“There's a possibility that it's wired either directly to their firehouse or at least an alarm...” Egon pondered out loud.

“Oh, we have a plan for that!” Petra snapped her fingers, “Spengs, do your thing babe.”

Enza pulled off her black gloves and began to touch the cold gray door. She placed on hand at the top and one on the bottom, Egon stood in amazement as he watched her hands become electrified. Enza closed her eyes, she needed to concentrate and feel if the electricity would drain away from the door instead of charging it. She felt it slowly drain...

“Egon's correct...” She stated, “...they have the door wired....”

“Do it, Spengs...” Petra almost shouted in glee.

Enza didn't bother to look at her but instead looked at Egon, “I can short out their system and remove the door. Shall I?”

Egon nodded, “We'll pay for a new door and reinstall their wiring later, this takes priority.”

Enza turned back to the door and electrified it, the door became red hot as the influx of electricity over loaded the small wires. They began to smell the paint and plastic burn off, the fumes gave Petra a coughing fit. 

Enza dug her fingers into the red hot metal, the heat began to burn around the cuffs of her suit as she pulled the door right out of the cemented hinges. She threw the smoking crumbled door on a pile of sand that happened to be near by, left overs from the door's built. 

Egon took a step back as Petra grinned, “Lightning beats fire anytime!”

“Wyverns have their place, Petra.” Enza replied as she pulled her gloves back on, she looked into the dark tunnel, “Shall we proceed?”

“Ladies first...” Egon smiled at her, he loved every new thing he discovered of his Lady Dragon.

Petra followed Enza into the darkness, “Why is it so dark?”

Egon pulled out a flashlight and flicked it on, the bright light in the darkness blinded the girls. Petra hissed at the light as Enza covered her eyes.

“Petra, back to normal sight, Egon doesn't have inferred vision like we do.” Enza was rubbing her eyes as they tingled from the light.

“I'm terribly sorry...” Egon began.

“No big, Spengler.” Petra replied as her sight became normal, “We'll just follow you then.”

As the girls followed Egon deeper into the tunnel, Petra kept looking around, “I'll say it again, why is it so dark in here? Ours is so bright we can see the light from the chamber as soon as we go into the tunnel... and it smells a hell of a lot better...”

“Could be the reason why the Nexus isn't working properly.” Replied Egon, “The brighter the Alpha-Delnite is, the healthier the Nexus is according to the books I've studied in your library...”

“Wow, learning pretty quick there, Spengler, going to need some speed bumps pretty soon.” Petra chuckled.

“I have an excellent teacher...: He looked back at Enza, who simply returned his smile.

As they walked closer to where the chamber was, they could see a faint white light coming from the entrance.

“That's not the right color for the light...” Enza mention with a worried tone, “It should have a bright pink, yellow or blue hue to it.”

“It's an artificial light source.” Egon stated as they entered the main chamber and saw the flood lights surrounding the pool that held the power of the Nexus.

Enza slowly walked towards the pool, her mind began to flow with thoughts of worry as she peered over the ledge and saw the bottom of the pool. It was almost empty.

Enza moved her hands over her mouth to hide her shocked face, Petra and Egon looked over her and knew this wasn't the ideal situation.

“It's empty...” Petra said in a whisper, “What the fuck?”

“Language...” Enza said softly, still in shock with the state of the pool. 

Egon examined both sides of the pool where two stone trenches slowly dripped the pink slime into the dry floor of the pool, “Why on earth would they have taken it all out?”

“Because they don't know any better.” Replied Enza as she rubbed her head in frustration, “We don't have enough Delnite to fill the pool... not even a quarter...”

“So, this has gone from bad to worse, right?” Petra ran her hand through her hair and looked at Egon, “So now what boss?”

Egon began to go through every bit of information he had read, there was something they could do...

He let out a deep breath, “We require an incredible amount of magical energy to force the Delnite to reproduce itself. But where can we get that kind of power?”

“The Core.” Enza replied calmly. 

Petra raised an eyebrow at her sister, “As in the Multiverse Core? The source of everything and true wild magic? That dangerous source of power?”

“Yes.”

Egon shook his head, “But how are we going to tap into that...”

“I can do it.” Enza answered again, “I can use myself as a conduit and draw the energy from the Core directly into the Delnite...”

“And burn your brains out before it's done...” Petra shot at her, “No way. Not happening. Find another way.”

“There is no other way Petra, and time is on the essence. We have moments before the barrier collapses beginning a ginormous chain reaction that will destroy everything. We don't have time to argue...” Enza was very serious. 

“You can loose yourself in the Core, Enza! We'll have just your body but no operating systems. You can ignite the Delnite so much that it explodes, you can...” Petra was desperately coming up with more logical reason for her sister to NOT do this reckless plan. 

Enza stood still with her arms crossed, “It's the only thing we can do at this exact moment...”

“Well then, let's ask our leader.” She turned to Egon, “Well boss, wanna risk my sister's life?”

“Petra!” Enza growled, “Don't you dare guilt him...”

Enza looked at him, Egon was in serious thought. He looked back at her, his face showed how much he hated this plan.

“It's all we have, Egon...” Enza said softly, “Occupational hazards are normal in this line of employment...”

He took another deep breath, “What would we have to do?”

“Petra, start emptying the canister of Delnite into the pool while Egon and I get ready.” Enza and Egon began to take out the sensory equipment from one of the bags.

“Great.” Petra snarled as she popped the top off the cylinder and began to pour the thick bright pink slime into the void of the pool, “Just for the record, I'm going to charge the shit out of these idiots...”

Enza turned to her sister, “First off, you won't be charging them, and if you did charge them, it would be impossible to bring their currency to our world. It would be counterfeit. Secondly, I'm positive that they're unaware of the situation that they have put us all in. There is very little magic here, how are these humans supposed to learn about magic if there's no one to teach them?”

Petra groaned, “Here we go again, Saint Enza forgiving the morons...”

“It's an endearing quality that perhaps you should learn, Petra.” Egon replied.

“Hey, I have a reputation to maintain here. There's a reason why I'm the bad and fun sister...”

“Because you have the loose morals of a batgoat...” Enza teased as Egon chuckled.

Petra was stunned, “Did my nerdy baby sister just make her first joke?” 

Enza thought for a moment, “Why, yes I did...”

“And it only took a hundred and seventy years...” Petra laughed as she held the canister upside down to get the very last bit of bright pink slime.

Egon finished setting up the sensory equipment and turned on the machine, “How old are you both exactly?”

Petra grinned, “I'm almost two hundred and twenty three and Enza's going to be the big two oh oh this year...”

Enza groaned, “And I will emphasize again on the fact that I don't want a party.” She turned to Egon, “It's actually my official adoption day, dragons don't keep track of when their offspring hatch.”

“And as a Venkman, we celebrate everything HARDCORE!” Petra grinned at her sister, “Even you, Enza Venkman...”

Egon starred at them both, “That has me confused...” He turned to Enza, “Are you either a Venkman or a Spengler...?”

“Both.” Enza replied as she began to throw lavender coin shaped stones into the shallow slime of the pool, “When I was adopted, they added Venkman to my name, so it's actually Enza Spengler-Venkman because they still wanted me to keep my House name as something to keep of my past life...”

“She dropped Venkman after she came back from studying with the Atlantians because there was getting too many Dr Venkmans in the phone book...” Petra laughed, “Have you told Egon what your full first name is?” Petra mentioned as she looked into the empty tank to make sure it was cleaned out, “It's so hard to pronounce...”

“It's not hard if you know Draconian.” Enza answered her sister as she started to stick two of the stones to her temples.

“So, what's the plan here...” Petra asked as she looked at the screen of the sensory unit.

“Egon's going to supervise the levels of raw Delnite and my own energy for safety reasons.” She turned to him, she could see the fear and worry in his beautiful blue eyes, “It has to be done, Egon.”

“I know, but I don't have to like it.” He said as he approached her.

“Now, the amount of Delnite we'll need is at least seventy percent, then the Delnite itself can take over and replenish itself the natural way. Egon, you'll also have to keep an eye on my energy levels, anything under twenty five percent and I risk becoming unconscious, you can't let me go down to fifteen or there may be no going back. You'll need Petra to pull me out of the pool when time comes. She has the strength to pull me out of that magical hold...”

“Wait, you're going into the pool?” Egon asked.

“Not in it, over it.” She replied.

Just as she was about to take a step towards the pool, Egon gently grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him.

“Before you do this, tell me your real name.” He asked, but it sounded more of a plea.

Enza hesitated, then smiled at him, “It's Enzapettorallinatiiralleyah...”

“That is the most beautiful name that I've ever heard...” Egon said in a whisper, almost enthralled with her name as it seem to burrow deep within him.

Petra couldn't help the grin on her face again as she watched them in their little moment of happiness, in her mind she was screaming at them to kiss. The anticipation was starting to drive her mad, she wanted them to finally acknowledge the emotions they were sharing. She scoffed in disappointment when Enza turned away from Egon and began walking towards the pool without that kiss. She was having a dreaded feeling that this was going to take forever... 

Egon turned to her, “It's going to be ok Petra, you and I will make sure Enza comes out of this fine, ok?”

Petra nodded, realizing that she needed to keep quiet next time, “Oh yeah sure, no problem.”

Egon watched nervously as Enza began to walk over the pool as if she was walking over a glass floor, he could hear every beat of his heart pound in fear as she floated above the pool and stretched out her arms. She closed her eyes and began to chant, her voice was so low that not even Petra's super hearing could detect exactly what she was saying. 

The bit of slime began to glow below Enza and started to swirl around like a whirlpool, she had become silent as the magic took hold of her and began to slowly fill the pool with a white light that shot down from the old mossy stone ceiling and seem to change colors every few moments.

He looked at the readings, the power that Enza was pushing through her body was at incredible levels. The equipment was starting to have difficulties handling the energy that was engulfing the room.

“She's tapped into the Core...” He said as he looked at the worried vampire, “...the pool's already gone up three percent...”

“Great.” She grumbled, “It's going to take forever and it'll burn her out... If she makes it, she's going to be super hungry after this and we didn't bring any of her energy bars...”

“Then we'll trouble our counterparts for a bit of food...” Replied Egon, “I'm sure they won't mind when they discovered we fixed their grave error...”

Petra laughed, “I forget that this is your first time working in the field with Spengs. She's going to need a ton of meat after this, and I'm not exaggerating. Her stomach isn't the same as ours...”

“I know, her stomach is like an incinerator, she can pack it in. We've eaten together often enough...”

“Yeah, how the hell did you get into her lab so fast?” Petra was still curious about that.

Egon looked up at her with a grin, “She asked me to...”

Petra raised an eyebrow, “Enza just doesn't ask someone to work in her lab, she has this whole huge and long ass testing thing and then there's the introductory classes and... just a lot of stuff...”

“She did to me, I don't know what to say to you, Petra. She asked for my assistance with this case and I've been doing other work in the lab with her. But I don't think her assistant Roger likes me very much...”

“Roger's been her assistant since we set up the lab almost thirty years ago, he's just upset that the boss has a new favorite...” Petra paused in mid sentence, a memory of the night the four had begun to set up the new remodeled lab had crept up on her... Enza had a very strange episode that night... something she had never felt before...

“I'm her favorite?” Egon looked at Petra with a child like grin on his face.

“Hey Egon, how old are you?” She asked.

“I'll be thirty this November... why?” He looked at her curiously.

“November what?” 

“Twenty first, why?” He was getting curious with her probing.

“Just curious, that's all. Just you humans and us have such different life spans and stuff. Just trying to make small talk while Enza's frying her brain...”

Petra tried to remember that night, it was between Saint Hallow's Eve and Yule, Between October and December, it happened in November. She was going to have to go see accounting and find out exactly what night that was, since that was the night they had received the new equipment from Atlantis. Nancy always kept the files in perfect order, and Petra had that nagging feeling that his birth and Enza's episode were connected... 

~*~

Egon and Winston got out of the cab dressed in their uniform and equipped ready to go as they spotted Peter and Ray standing beside the broken cab and Ecto-1. 

“What new developments have you discovered so far?” Egon asked them as they approached.

“Ray tried to get one of his drone probes into the portal...” Peter replied.

“And?” Egon asked seriously.

Ray gave him a sad look and showed him the broken drone, “I got it in, but there was a bunch of static that I couldn't get a clear visual. But I did get a picture of what looked like a Louisville Slugger just before it got hit and thrown back out...”

Egon looked at him strangely, “Whatever was in the portal, hit your drone... with a bat?”

“I guess there's a huge inter-dimensional company baseball tournament and they lost their ball in the Park.” Peter smirked as he handed Egon the dash cam, “Egon, I bet it's your fault that we don't get invited to play with the other Ghostbusters...”

“Hardly, Peter...” Egon started to watch the video and starred intensely at the little screen, “None of the other dimensions are missing their Spengler. These two are not human...”

“I knew you Spenglers weren't human...” Peter chuckled.

Winston, slapped Peter up side his head, “Seriously?”

Egon simply gave Peter an annoyed raised eyebrow before returning his gaze at the tiny screen, “ The two females, they're not human. One has red eyes and fangs with super human strength, may be vampiric? The other seems to be an elf... perhaps...”

“An elf? As in elves like in Lord of the Rings?” Ray looked excited, “That's amazing! Mythological creatures traveling to our world! Imagine what we can learn! Magic! We could... ”

“A vampire, an elf, and an Egon walk into Central Park...” Peter thought for a moment, “...there's a punch line in there somewhere...”

Suddenly, a great light flashed around them, almost blinding them. People screaming and tires squealing rang around them as they tried to adjust their eyes. Egon was the first one to stare in shock at the giant beam of light that seemed to pass through the sky and down in the general direction of the mood slime pool. And another boom shook the area, The others got their sight back and noticed the explosions coming from the unstable portal before it imploded and disappeared...

Peter looked back at Egon, “It's bad, isn't it?”

Egon let out a sigh, “We best go find these invaders before they destroy us all...”

“Great. I love this job! Let's go save the world... again!” Peter replied in a sarcastic tone.

~*~

“FUCK!” Rayshida shouted as the portal began to smoke and small pop sounds coming from the electronics...

“You swearing can't be good!” Wanjay yelled back as she brought two fire suppression canisters, “Is this going to blow?”

“Get Ray in here!” The tigress snapped, “Whatever's going on there is shoving raw power directly into the portal, it's getting a massive power surge and feeding that raw power back into the power lines... it's burning it out! I need Ray's help keeping this from blowing up and trapping our crew there...” Ray ran to another computer console, “I'm going to have you and Roger to check out the containment unit and the grid, if the feedback gets into the generators and fries the banks, it may blow up the containment unit... AND CALL FAWNA IN!”

“And Spengler said it was going to be an easy job...”

Ray tried to laugh but it came out more of a nervous cackle, “If she said that, then she lied to you. If it involves Enza AND Petra, there's nothing going to be easy about it...”

“It was Egon who said it would be easy...”

“Oh... that poor poor man... he has no idea what he's gotten himself into...”

~*~

Petra paced around the chamber, keeping her eyes on her sister. Enza was still floated above the swirling pool bathed in the light of the Core, her eyes were closed and no sound came from her. The anxiety and fear began to creep slowly into her mind as she kept pacing.

Egon couldn't help but keep looking at the worried vampire, he understood what she was going through, he was feeling it himself. He looked back at Enza, her face was calm and serine. Looking back at the screen, he felt his own anxiety rising. 

“What's the numbers now, Spengler?” 

“The Nexus is at fifty-seven percent...”

Petra turned to him with a serious gaze, “And Enza?”

He let out a long sigh, “Thirty-one percent...”

Petra stopped and looked back at her sister, “I'm no math expert, but those numbers don't make me feel good...”

Egon shook his head, “No, they're not good numbers Petra. To be truthful, I'm getting a bad feeling about this...”

“I had a bad feeling when we came into this world.” Petra stopped her pacing and placed her hands on her hips, “The Core is sucking up her energy faster than it's filling up the pool...”

“Petra, what did you mean when you said Enza could loose herself in the Core?” His voice couldn't hide his uneasiness. 

“When people start messing with the Core, bad things happen. The Core doesn't like to be messed with. Sometimes, a person can go so far into it and they loose themselves, their identity, their whole being and get absorbed into it leaving their bodies just a breathing shell. One of Enza's Atlantian mentors had that happen to him while she was an intern there. Last she heard, he's still a vegetable. And these people have been messing with the Core since their creation. No one knows more about the Core, the Nexuses and basically everything magic and knowledge than they do. They're basically a race of super nerds.” Petra wanted to punch something so much to relieve the fear that kept growing inside.

“So Enza was quite aware of the risks...” Egon felt his chest tighten and an ache of dread in his heart, “Is having a death wish a trait of the Venkmans here?”

Petra chuckled, “So you've heard stories of my stupidity. No. I do crazy shit because I'm addicted to the adrenaline and the excitement. Adrenaline is my drug of choice, weed's my second choice. Enza does crazy shit because it has to get done and she has no fear of death. It's just another adventure to her.”

Egon stared at her strangely, “She has no self preservation instinct.”

“No. She doesn't...” Petra gave him a curious look and raised a brow, a sly smirk crept on her lips, “...unless someone gives her a reason to take better care of herself...”

Egon sighed, “If you, her own sister, can't get through to her, I doubt anyone else can...”

She rolled her eyes, “I'm talking about a love interest, Egon...”

“Impossible with dragons, Enza can't choose a mate as you're well aware of...” Egon's voice had an edge to it.

Petra shook her head and let out a chuckle, she should have remembered that Spenglers don't get hints, “YOU, Egon!”

Egon stared at her in shock, “Me? But Enza's my counterpart and the dragon's mating bonds don't allow for such inter-specie relationships...”

Petra laughed, “Enza's not your counterpart, Roger is.”

Egon thought for a moment, Peter had mentioned how he and Roger looked similar except for the weight gain and the equine bottom half, “No offense to Roger but he's not a Ghostbuster, he's an assistant in a lab...”

Petra scoffed, “Just because he's not busting ghosts doesn't mean that he isn't your counterpart! He is! And I have proof!” She pulled out her smart phone from her pocket and began to go through it, she looked at Egon and grinned.

“What proof could you have...” He asked as she rushed to him and showed him a picture of two centaurs.

Egon's eyes intensified at the couple. The female had bright red fur on her equine part as well as on her head. With the pointed green glasses and yellow bright tank top, she looked almost like Janine. And Roger, a thinner Roger, the unmistakable resemblance to Egon was undeniable even to the Pompadour on his head. The only difference besides the pony body, was Roger's hair was a darker blond than Egon's. Even down to the pink shirt and yellow poka dotted tie. 

“Well Spengler?” 

“I...” Egon starred back at her, his face showed his puzzlement, “Why would you have a picture of Roger and... I guess your version of.. Janine? But... Jasper...”

Petra still had that sly grin, “Oh, I've been doing my own little project on the side, Enza's not the only scientist in the family.”

Egon gave her a raised brow in question, “What kind of project would you need a picture of Roger and his girlfriend?”

“Wife, Nancy's his wife and she's our day office manager. She's also on maternity leave at the moment with their third foal, best damn secretary I've ever had. Miss that bitch...”

“You're not answering my question, Petra.” Egon became more serious, “What are you up to?”

Petra kept that grin, she felt it was time to tell him, “I'm conducting research and observing an event that no person has ever seen before, the courtship between two dragons...”

“That's bullocks and you know it.” Egon growled, “Enza's the only dragon off the island, where's the other one? Try the truth this time Petra.”

“But I am Egon, I'm telling the truth.” Petra knelt beside him, “Egon, there is another dragon. You.”

“W...Wha...What?” Egon couldn't believe what he was hearing, “Are you blind, Petra? Do I look like a dragon?”

“No, right now you don't, but your soul does. And a mighty big fucker too. I don't know anything about the dragons in your world, but you have the soul of a dragon. You may be a reincarnation of a past dragon or something, I don't know the details. But buddy, you're a dragon.” Petra patted his knee with that smile on her face and a serious look in her eyes, “Egon, you can't look me in the eyes and tell me you don't have strong feelings for Enza, because I can see it a mile away and so does everyone in the lab.”

He began to blush in embarrassment, “It's that noticeable?”

“Oh hell ya. And I know the feelings are mutual, even though Enza's absolutely clueless about it.”

“How do you know?”

She laughed again, “Enza's head over heels for you. She's changed after one week with you. She lets you touch her, she hates being touched except by a very few people. She smiles a shit ton more, she laughs, she made a joke! Enza never jokes. These past few weeks that you've been spending in the lab with her, she's becomes more alive like she's never been. I know the changes are small, but they're huge if you know Enza. And at the ball, Enza wouldn't have ever agreed to going, she only did it because you were going.” 

Egon thought for a moment, the dragon idea was too inconceivable to entertain, “I'm not a dragon, Petra. I would've known something off about myself growing up, besides being a genius. As for trying to have a relationship with her, there's too many obstacles. We're both from different worlds...”

“Oh fuck off, Egon. You have a chance to experience the greatest chance of a lifetime and you're making stupid excuses...” She snapped, “Tell me right now, when those smugglers brought you guys here, tell me if you felt anything different the moment you were here.”

Egon closed his eyes, he remember that moment he felt something. After the shock of waking up in a different world, he did know something was different, “I felt like someone was calling me... but I thought it was...”

“And when you saw Enza for the first time?”

“I was immediately intrigued...”

“And I bet if you saw her in her true form, things would get really heated between the two of you...”

Egon opened his eyes and saw the ear to ear smile on her face and her excited eyes, “I did...”

“WHAT? WHEN?!” Petra couldn't help get more excited,.

“A few weeks ago, a couple of days after we had the testing done. She found me up on the roof, I was watching the lightning storm, just trying to clear my head...”

“Tell, me Egon, what did you feel when you saw her?”

He looked at her directly in her eyes, “I wanted to be with her...”

Petra let out a small shrill and whispered, “That's the bond you two share... the dragon's mating bond... you and Enza, are mates.”

“Petra, I'm not a...” Urgently, the matter at hand came to him, Egon immediately turned to the screen of the console, “Oh no...”

Petra began to panic, “What?”

“The pool's only at sixty-four percent and Enza's at eighteen percent!” Egon shouted as he began to panic, “Petra!”

“I'm on it!” She shouted as she raced as fast as she could and dove towards her sister. 

Egon only saw a flash of black as Petra grabbed Enza by the waist, pulling her out of the holds of the Core. As soon as she rolled with Enza in her arms on the other side of the pool, the light disappeared and the pool became still. Egon rushed to them and fell to his knees, Petra sat up with Enza still cradled in her arms.

“Is she ok?” Egon asked with an unsteady voice, his face clearly showing his worry and fears.

Petra lifted her sister's head and placed her hand over Enza's forehead, “I can't get anything right now, there's too much going on in her head... she's so cold...”

“What are the chances that...” Egon didn't want to say it, his heart wouldn't let him say it out loud.

“I don't know, this is the first time that she's done something like this that I know of...” She looked up at Egon with the same fear in her eyes, “What are we going to do... if...”

He placed his hand on her shoulder, “We'll figure something out, Petra. We won't let her live the rest of her life in a bed.” He was trying to calm himself mostly with that statement. 

“What part of NO TRESPASSING don't you yahoos understand?” Petra and Egon immediately turned their heads in surprise at the source of the voice. 

They stared at the four men dressed in gray jumpers, all four had proton packs and two had their wands pointed at them. 

Petra turned to Egon and whispered, “Shit, for a second there I thought they were the People Busters again... I can take them all on, they won't see me coming...”

“I rather you not,” Egon whispered back, “I have a feeling that we are going to require their assistance with Enza...”

She growled, “Fine, I'll be nice.”

She gently handed her sleeping sister to him, Egon cradled Enza closer to him. Petra stood up and raised her hands towards the four Ghostbusters.

“Gentlemen...” She began, “I know this looks bad but I assure you that it's for a great cause...”

“From our personal experience, it didn't look like it,” The one with the receding hair line said, “what the hell are you three up to?”

“It seems that one of them is in need of assistance,” said the one that Petra already guessed was a Spengler or Spengler kind.

“My name is Dr Petra Venkman, my two associates are Dr Egon Spengler and the one sleeping like a baby is Dr Enza Spengler...”

The balding one lowered his head as the two with their wands out lowered them, “Two more Spengler? I don't think our world can handle anymore Spenglers...”

Their Spengler slapped him behind the head, “Enough Peter. Obviously they're not here to destroy our world as we presumed.”

Egon stood up with Enza still in his arms, “You assumed that we were here to do harm?”

“With the amount of nasties we've had, it's pretty much a safe assumption.” The dark skinned one replied as he holstered his wand, “and let's be real here, you three where carrying a lot of gear.”

Petra moved closer to them, she lowered her hands, “So, I can presume you all are Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Raymond Stantz and Winston Zeddemore, am I right?”

“Doctor Spengler.” their Egon added.

Petra turned to Egon, “He reminds me of Enza...” She turned back to the four, “Gentleman, we're not the idiots here. You four almost caused the destruction of not only your world, but put the entire multiverse in danger over YOUR STUPIDATY!”

Egon moved beside her, “Wow, do you even know how to be nice?”

“This IS me being nice...” She faked her smiled.

“From our side of the pond, it looked like you guys were here to do some shenanigans yourselves.” Peter replied, “Giant beam of light coming from the sky at night ring any bells?”

“That beam of light was a small portion of the Core...” Egon replied, “As in the very source of wild chaotic divine magic that rules over the multiverse...”

Dr Spengler pulled out his PKM meter and began to scan towards the three, “Are you implying that you three brought forth THE ultimate power of the universe? I find that difficult to believe...”

Petra gave him a perturbed gaze, “Oh yeah?” She moved in lightning speed in front of him, “Tell that to my SISTER who might be a vegetable for the rest of her fucken life because YOU were too horny to travel out of your box!” She was furious and the thought of loosing Enza over this was getting to her.

Dr Spengler moved back as his meter began to beep loudly as Petra became more enraged, he looked at her amazed, “What are you?”

“A very pissed off vampire.” She growled as her red eyes glowed in the dim light of the chamber.

Peter turned to Ray, “I guess we can finally add that to the list of encounters...”

“PETRA!” Egon shouted, “Don't start...”

“THEY STARTED IT, EGON!” She shouted, “They emptied the fucken pool! Their stupid portal caused all the fucken breaks! We wouldn't have come here if these morons took a little more initiative and did their research before messing in shit they don't fucken know...” She took a deep breath, “And now, we may have lost Enza to the Core...”

Thee of the Ghostbusters looked at each other with a look of concern and remorse as the vampire let loose her anger, their Spengler was preoccupied with the readings on his meter to pay attention to the argument at hand.

“Petra, getting angry at them isn't going to help her.” Egon tried to reason with her, “If we worked together, we can find a way to bring Enza back IF she's in the Core. There's a chance still that she might just be in her hibernation stasis...”

“And if she's not?” She turned to him and starred at her sister, “If she's gone, I'm eating these fuckers...”

Ray raised his arms up, “Whoa Dr Venkman, let's not turn to violence, as your Dr Spengler said, us fighting isn't going to help your sister. We're all Ghostbusters, we take care of our own...”

Petra turned to him, “Oh fuck off Ray.”

Peter began to get annoyed and irritated, “YOU back the fuck off lady! No one talks to Ray like that... besides me.”

“Petra...” Egon called to her as he adjusted Enza in his arms, she was light but holding her this long was starting to strain him, “...you need to calm down...”

“I'll talk to whoever the fuck, any way I want, you walking lunch bag!” Petra was now face to face and inches from her counterpart.

“Apologize to him right now!” Peter growled back at her.

“Peter, it's ok. She's angry and scared, she has a right to...” Ray attempted to calm him.

“Like hell it is! This bitch comes in OUR territory and starts messing with OUR stuff and starts running her mouth? I don't think so...”

“Oh! Look who's talking! If your dumbass nerds would've done the job right, we wouldn't be here in the first place cleaning up YOUR fucken mess!”

“PETRA! CALM DOWN!” Egon shouted as the argument between the two Venkmans escalated.

“No one asked you to!” Peter shouted back, “We're quite capable of fixing our own messes!”

Petra laughed sarcastically, “Oh yeah? I bet you guys have a shit ton of experience in messing up! Have you imbeciles noticed a rise in stranger than normal paranormal activities? Or how about sharing the space with another dimension or two? Or how about gods and spirits just going in and out like no one's business? Thanks to your portal AND fucking around with the Nexus AND taking all the Delnite out of the pool, you guys were well on your way to cause the entire multiverse to crash...”

Dr Spengler raised his head from his meter, “Crash the multiverse? How would...”

Peter scoffed, “Oh I'm sure you're just exaggerating the issue, are you menstruating at this moment? That can cause some mental issues in women... oh that's right, you don't menstruate because you're dead...”

Petra stood still with an irked face, “Yeah, that's how smart you are. Spengler, is there any dimensional repercussions if I smashed this guy?”

Peter leaned closer to her with a sly smirk on his face and a gleam in his eye, “That would depend on what kind of smashing we're talking about here.” He winked, “I bet it's been a really really long time since you've gotten laid...”

Petra growled, “That's it! It's clobbering time!”

As Petra was starting to pull her fist back, a particle beam shot just over their heads, Both Venkmans jumped away from each other and fell on the hard stone floor. Everyone looked at the source and found Winston holding his smoking wand out with a miffed look on his face.

“You idiots done arguing who's the bigger asshole? Guess what, you both win.” He turned to Egon and pointed to Enza, “There's a woman here that is in need of medical attention and you two idiots are wasting time arguing. We need to get back to the station and help her.”

Peter and Petra stood up and gave each other a shamed look.

Winston holstered his wand and walked over to Egon, extending his arms out, “Here man, give her to me. It looks like you're starting to struggle.”

Egon reluctantly handed Enza to him, “Thank you, Mr Zeddemore...”

“Call me Winston, and it's Dr Zeddemore now.”

Winston turned to the two Venkmans, “Now, you both going to stay here and argue some more or you coming with us?”

Both sighed and nodded.

“Good.” Winston turned to Egon, “We'll get this crap all settled and help your friend out here.”

Egon let out a sigh of relief, “I hope so Winston, I really hope so...”


End file.
